Ankita rallies to surprise Marie in a thriller

NAGPUR: Unseeded Ankita Das upset higher seed and World No 173 Marie Migot of France in a thrill a minute contest 4-3 in their qualifying round of the ITTF World Tour Slovenia Open Table Tennis Challenge on Wednesday. In an exciting contest, the unseeded Indian paddler rallied splendidly from three games down to emerge victorious on Day 1 of the six-day championship.
Both the paddlers, playing their first ever contest in an World Tour event against each other, battled it out in the Group 13 of the qualifying round of the Women's Singles event.
An aggressive start helped Marie pocket the initial three games 11-9, 11-5, 11-5. Ankita, however, kept her cool and reduced the margin to 1-3 by winning the fourth game 11-9. The thrilling fifth game went down the wires and Ankita, again playing with a cool mindset, emerged victorious 14-12 to bring down the lead to 2-3.
Having regained the confidence, the Silliguri paddler brought parity by winning the sixth game 11-8. In the seventh and deciding game Ankita got the better of Marie 11-8 to post her first biggest win in the qualifying round of the ITTF World Tour event.
Earlier in the first match of the Group, Marie Migot prevailed over Italy's Le Thi Hong Loan 11-7, 11-8, 7-11, 11-1 and 11-1.
Ankita, however, had a rousing start to her campaign. In the second outing of the group stage, Ankita blanked unseeded Slovakian rival Luckic Rebeka with ease. After a slow start where Ankita won the first game 12-10 the Indian paddler outplayed her Slovakian opponent 11-6, 11-3 and 11-2 for a winning start.