The PSPB paddler had no reason to lose a match that he was dominating against Haryana's Wesley Do Rosario until the left-hander turned the tables on the title contender in the nick of time in the fourth game which Manav led 4-1, after seizing the initiative very early in the first round.
Nobody would have thought that Manav, who struck an early rhythm with a 3-0 and 4-1 lead, would lose the way he did. On the other hand, the Haryana paddler grabbed the opportunity at deuce and took his first game on extended points. In the last three games, there were occasions when Manav could have bounced back but the left-hander with his calculated attack and excellent blocks piled on the agony on his rival to romp home winner 4-3.
Probably, this match before noon set the tone for the rest of the day as women seeds No. 8 Reeth Rishya, No. 5 Sreeja Akula, No. 4 Divya Deshpande from the first half of the draw threw open the contest as they lost to Senhora D'Souza 3-4, Poymantee Baisya 2-4, Takeme Sarkar 2-4, respectively.
As if this was not enough, the bottom half of the draw saw No. 3 seed Sagarika Mukherjee surprisingly exiting to former national champion Shamini Kumaresan 3-4 in a game that lasted 45 minutes and then the talented Shruti Amrute accounted for No. 6 seed Pooja Sahasrabudhe 4-3 in another marathon.
This gives top-seed Sutirtha Mukherjee a clean passage up to the semi-finals unless she makes a mess of it. After enjoying a first-round bye the Haryana girl beat Sataponi De of North Bengal for zilch. In her next round, she would be running into a determined Mallika Bhandarkar who beat young Kaushani Nath of Railways 4-0. Similarly, second-seed Madhurika Patkar and No. 7 seed Ayhika Mukherjee moved into the round of 32 from the bottom half, but Ayhika had to struggle to beat Mamata Prabhu of Bank of Baroda 4-2 after the former had levelled at 2-2.
Senhora had to play out of her skin to overcome Reeth in her second round match as the BoB girl was 2-3 down. She upped the ante when she needed to seal her opponent's fate. But it was somewhat easy for West Bengal's Poymantee Baisya who sent Sreeja packing despite restoring parity at 2-2. Divya, too, faltered against a determined Takeme who managed to pull the shutters down when she took the fifth and sixth games.
But the match of the day in the women's singles was, undoubtedly, the one between Sagarika and Shamini. The No. 3 seed was expected to win but the fighter in the former national champion never allowed her to give in even after the Railways woman had levelled at 3-3. In the decider, Shamini launched herself with some crisp forehands which brooked no challenge from the bespectacled Sagarika.
( With inputs from IANS )