CITY’S international paddler Jennifer Varghese toppled top seed in the women’ singles pre-quarterfinal of the 54th Inter-District & 85th State Table Tennis Championship in progress at Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Mahalunge-Balewadi, Pune on Saturday. The event is being organised by Poona District Table Tennis Association under the aegis of Maharashtra State Table Tennis Association. Seeded 17th, Jennifer rallied from a game down to defeat top seed Senhora Dsouza of Mumbai City District (MCD) 3-2. The scores read 7-11, 11-8, 11-4, 4-11, 11-6.

 

Later in the day, Jennifer beat 9th seed Manasi Chiplunkar also of MCD in three straight games 13-11, 11-7, 11-5.

In the girls Under-19 quarters, 11th seed Jennifer upset better ranked sixth seed Thane’s Kavya Bhatt also in straight games 11-6, 11-8, 11-6. It was all over for Nagpur’s 19th Aadi Chitnis in the men’s singles as he went down to TST’s third seed Mandar Hardikar in four games 11-4, 4-11, 11-6, 11-8 in the pre-quarters. Tournament ends on Sunday.