Visakhapatnam, October 21: With most favourites, including A. Sharath Kamal, taking top spots in men’s singles qualifying group matches, nobody expects anything contrary to happen even in main draw’s first round outings.

However, a few matches witnessed qualifiers under pressure to meet the standards with at least two matches going down to the wire in the 11Even Sports National Ranking (South Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium here today.

The first round outing for Nishaad Shah of Air India was a real tough one, thanks to his rival Suraj Das from West Bengal which the Air India boy won 4-3. But the match was a thriller in the sense it was decided in the seventh game when Nishaad closed out on his opponent 7-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-4, 11-9, 14-12, 11-6.

Suraj frittered away two match points in the sixth game and so did Nishaad when he lost two game points before winning it to heave a big sigh of relief. Drained out as he was, Suraj failed to motivate himself in the decider which Nishaad won without any trouble.

In the second, Sanmay Paranjape of West Bengal outwitted Kishore Kumar Divakar of Tamil Nadu 4-3 in a match of equals. The West Bengal boy scored more winners than his rival even as the TN boy failed to capitalize when situated presented him with chances.

EASY FOR SHARATH

There were quite a few matches that threw up 4-2 results like the ones between Harsh Sachnandani of Gujarat who beat Subham Ojha of Rajasthan,Talangana’s Lahoti Harshavardhan defeated Lalathunhlua of Mizoram, AAI’s Sarthak Gandhi downed Souvik Kar of PSPB and Sougata Sarkar of LIC overcame Rakshit Barigidad of Karnataka.

As for Sharath, he had an easy 4-0 passage against Subhra Roy Chouwdhury of MP and will now meet in the second round left-handed Abhishek Yadav of PSPB, who struggled to win 4-2 against Tamil Nadu’s Ananth Devarajan, later today.

By his standards, Sharath is expected to go through to the pre-quarterfinals where he is slated to meet No. 2 seed Sanil Shetty who will play his first outing this evening when he takes on Nishaad Shah.

SHAIILU’S BRAVE FIGHT

In women’s singles, with a well spread out byes, only 16 players were involved in the eight first-round matches, some of which kept everyone interested. Andhra’s promising prospect Shailu Noorbasha did put up a fight but Tamil Nadu’s Harshavardini won 10-12, 11-8, 11-1, 11-13, 11-7, 11-5 to move into the second round. AAI’s Selenadeepth Selvakumar was taken some distance by Haryana’s Riti Shankar before the former winning it 7-11, 12-10, 11-6, 11-4, 9-11, 11-9. So was the case with RBI’s Shweta Parte who had to bring in all her experience to account for Sikha Jacob of Kerala 11-7, 9-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-6, 11-8.

NANDITA STRUGGLES

But it was the match between PSPB veteran Nandita Saha and Kritika Malik of Delhi that pushed spectators to the edge of their seats. Nandita squandered a 2-1 lead to trail 2-3 as Kritika put up a brave fight to outscore her rival in the fourth and fifth games. The experienced PSPB girl, however, managed to pull it off with two crispy sixth and seventh games to which the Delhi lass had no answer.

In Youth Girls, there were quite a few upsets in the latter groups. For instance, Shrubabati Moitra of West Bengal upstaged Puja Paul of North Bengal to enter the main draw. Her 3-1 (11-7, 1-14, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8) win against Puja in group 15 saw through to her stage 2 entry. In group 16, it was even worse as Maharashtra’s Shruti Amrute’s 11-6, 9-11, 3-11, 3-11 loss to Delhis Ishita Gupta sent her out of reckoning. Ishita, in fact, had to play a good game against Tulika Roy of West Bengal to win 11-7, 1-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6 and seal her main draw spot.

Seraha Jacob of Kerala beat Delhi’s Vanshika Bhargava 10-12, 11-8, 11-2, 11-5 to take the lone qualifier’s slot from group 17 while in group 18, Sumana Saha of West Bengal ousted Shrusti Gupta of Delhi in a clinching match which the Bengal paddler won 11-2, 13-11, 5-11, 11-5. Kushi Viswanath of Karnataka bowed out after a tie ensued between her and Kaushani Nath of West Bengal Despite both having five points, the latter moved in with better average.

But for these abnormalities, every other player from the rest of groups had no problem whatsoever as they sailed into the knockout stage.

Visakhapatnam, October 20: It was rather an uncommon scenario for one and all, including the protagonist, on the opening day of the 11Even Sports National Ranking (South Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium here today.

Achanta Sharatrh Kamal, once the top-ranked Indian in the world, played today his first round qualification match against Syed Kalavath Abdul Kader of IA & AD in 19 years! He was a bit anxious and uncomfortable by his own admission.

No doubt, Sharath won the match 11-9, 12-10, 11-7 in group 13. The three-time Olympian has one more group match against Bharat Krishnan of Kerala later today and there is not an iota of doubt that he will top the group to qualify for the men’s singles main draw.

In a free-wheeling chat, the finest player that India has produced said that he had to take this conscientious decision after he has had a word with the top-brass of TTFI. “My main focus is 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast (Australia). Towards that end, I have now moved into India by about 50 percent. I have given myself two years initially and decided to revisit myself after a year before arriving at a final decision on whether to shift completely to India or go back to Germany,” he said.

Sharath admitted the problems of a sudden shift as it will be difficult for him to find playing partners as players will be travelling for the national ranking events. “This gives me little option but this is the best I can think of as I want to be at home, giving time to my family,” he added.

But the ace paddler was quick to point out the perils. “All these years I slogged out, playing day in and day out and my worry now is the home comfort I will get used to. It’s a trial and error method and hope to strike a balance,” said Sharath.

Coming back to the issue of having to play the qualifiers, Sharath felt he had no option. “But I definitely felt uncomfortable because when I saw the list of eight players that have been given direct entry to Stage 2. I was a bit upset because I have no problems about the top guys like Sathiyan, Sanil (Shetty) and Harmeet (Desai). But there are quite a few juniors in that list and when I have to play qualifiers, yes it did hurt me.”

But he was quick to come back to his old self and was honest that he needed to adapt to the Indian conditions if he were to continue playing. “Five years ago, it was easy and there was more or less a similar condition in India as well as in Europe. The main reason was the speed glue and it minimized external conditions. The glue was subsequently banned. Another reason is in Europe, balls with seams are used while in India we use seamless balls and both are approved by ITTF. You need two weeks to acclimatize.”

However, one thing he was certain about. “I want to play it the hard way and come through the process. I know of no short cuts,” was the parting shot from a much fitter Sharath.

Visakhapatnam, October 20: Group leaders in both the men’s and women’s singles events were, mor or less, well entrenched themselves on the opening day and headed towards securing their top slots in the 11Even Sports National Ranking (South Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium here today.

With the South Zone championships attracting quite a large number of entries, it was a tough job for the competition department, led by N. Ganeshan, to divide players into 48 groups (men) with G. Sathiyan, Sanil Shetty, Harmeet Desai, Jubin Kumar, Manav Thakkar, Subhajit Saha, Utkarsh Gupta and Devesh Karia getting direct entry into the main draw.

Similalry, Suthirtha Mukherjee, Madhurika Patkar, Manika Batra, Mouma Das, Mousumi Paul, Pooja Sahasrabuddhe, Anika Das and Reeth Rishya have been given qualification byes because of their overall rankings.

All the men and women players will play a couple of rounds today and after two days of qualification matches, a clear picture will emerge about who all make the second stage cut before the main draw events begin. Meanwhile, the Youth Boys (32 groups) and Youth Girls (20 groups) will also play one round of matches today.

Earlier in the morning, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu declared the meet open. At his inaugural address, the chief minister, stressing on the need to pursue sports announced a couple of bonanzas which included setting up of an exclusive table tennis academy at Kommadi. He also assured that his government will help Vizag host every year one national and one international table tennis tournament every year.

Naidu made this announcement after TTFI president Prabhat C. Chaturvedi’s made a request to him for a full-fledged academy in the state to nurture talent. The chief minister also gave his nod to the TTFI chief’s suggestion of AP’s continuous support in hosting national and international TT events.

The chief minister asked his Labour, Youth and Sports Minister K. Atcham Naidu, who also graced the occasion, to earmark for land for the academy at Kommadi besides making a fervent appeal to the corporate sector to come forward and assist the government establish different academies in Andhra to make it a model state. “We should be able to produce quality players who can go on to replicate what P.V. Sindhu did at Rio,” he said.

Naidu also announced that Andhra will be too happy to host the National Games in 2019 and his government will extend all help that is needed to create state-of-the art infrastructure in the new state.

Visakhapatnam, October 19: The return of the prodigal son—A. Saharath Kamal—to the domestic circuit, especially for the 11Even Sports National Ranking (South Zone) Table Tennis Championships starting at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium at the VPT Sports Complex tomorrow, is the best thing advertisement that can happen to the sport. Incidentally, this will be first zonal meet that the Rio Olympian will be competing in, this season.

Yet, there is still a drawback as top-ranked Indian in the world, Soumyajit Ghosh, and North Zone champion Anthony Amalraj have given another goby to the ranking championships.

However, the presence of Sharath has given the Vizag organizers, who are hosting a national ranking event after 28 years, a big shot in the arm and one expects the crowd to rally behind them as well as Sharath to enjoy his ‘rare’ home appearance. Even his old and friendly Coach Massimo Costantini, who took charge as the national coach on October 1, will be looking forward to the icon’s performance.

With Sharath in the thick of action, it would add the zing that was missing from the men’s singles so far. Of course, G. Sathiyan who won his season’s first title at Rajkot just a week ago will have his task cut out as Sanil Shetty, Jubin Kumar of PSPB and Gujarat’s Devesh Karia, who was a finalist at Rajkot, will also be at his throat.

All said and done, Sharath return also augurs well as the standard of competition will go a few notches higher as one has seen in the women’s singles. Suthirtha, already with three silverwares this season, will give her best shot as the likes of Manika Batra, Madhurika Patkar and Pooja Sahasrabudde have found out to their chagrin. It has been big struggle for former national champions like Mouma Das and K. Shamini. However, it was heart warning to see Poulomi Ghatak, another former national champion, put up a brave front trying to make a comeback in recent times.

Another good thing of these ranking events is that one gets to see a lot of youngsters—the future of India—doing consistently well. Manav Thakkar, Ananth Devarajan, Ronit Bhanja, Birdie Boro and Snehit Suravajjula in Youth and Junior Boys sections and Archana Kamath, Anusha Kutumbale, Varuni Jaiswal, Moumita Datta and Prapti Sen, to name a few, in Girls category have been working hard as the results are proving.

Even in the Sub-Junior and Cadet sections, the boys and girls have shown a lot of promise and it is indicative of the sport growing, though not by leaps and bounds, and getting ready to reap a good harvest in the coming years. The Italian coach has already a good collection of players on his I-Pad, chosen from the Central and West Zone events, and he would like to add a few more names to the list after watching players at the South Zone. The opportunity beckons young paddlers and it is up to them to utilize it and be rest assured of the rewards. The ball is in their court.

Meanwhile, Competition Manager Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer said that C.L. Thade has been nominated as the chief referee for the competitions here with assistance coming from a team 45 technical officials that include deputy and assistance referees, Blue Badge, International and National umpires.

Equipment from Stag—flooring, tables and balls—will be used for the championships which are organized by the Visakhapatnam District Table Tennis Association and conducted by the Andhra Pradesh State Table Tennis Association.

The Championships, which will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, has received 1100 entries from among 731 paddlers

Rajkot, October 18: Delhi’s Payas Jain and Maharashtra’s Diya Chitale claimed the season’s maiden titles in the Sub-Junior category of the 11Even Sports National Ranking (West Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Veer Savarkar Municipal Corporation Stadium here today.

In the process, in all-Delhi Boys final, Payas beat Yashansh Malik 4-1 while Diya stopped Anusha Kutumble from Madhya Pradesh 4-2 from winning the third consecutive Girls’ crown.

Payas and Yashansh, good friends off the table, know each other well and have beaten each other in Delhi State events. But Payas was not the one to let go his first opportunity this year and deservingly won.

Indeed, Payas was the better paddler on view today, executing his shots to perfection. In fact, he hit a nice rhythm straightaway and looked like wrapping it up 4-0 but for his folly of hurrying with the shots in the third. Yashansh won the game on extended points. Payas quickly realized his mistgake and became more clinical in the next two to take home the cash and the glittering trophy.

On the other hand, Diya was picture perfect in the first two games and it unnerved Anusha to the extent that she made a lot of unforced errors. But Diya executed her shots with finesse and employed more of her backhand. Her forehand blistering shots and clever use of angles with good anticipation, too, helped her score more winners than her MP rival. However Anusha tried to make a comeback, Diya was at it to force her on the back foot.

TAMIL NADU’S CADET SWEEP

In what was an all-Tamil Nadu and left-handers final in Cadet Boys, Preyesh completed a hat-trick of titles this season beating Tarun Shanmugam 4-0. Preyesh, who showed consistency in the North and Central Zone events earlier, continued his winning ways with an easy win over his state mate, Tarun.

But Kavyashree Baskar, also from Tamil Nadu, upstaged Haryana’s Suhana Saini to deny her a hat-trick of crowns in Cadet Girls with a 4-0 triumph. Suhana had won the titles at Chandigarh and Indore this season. Kavyashree, who has had a very good season last year, came back nicely to wrest the initiative from the Haryana girl.

After a comfortable 3-0 lead, Kavyashree lost two match points in the fourth when Suhana, with a brilliant fight back, won her first 13-11. Again, in the next, the Haryana youngster saved a match point to put pressure on the TN girl. But it was the sixth, which saw some long rallies, that Suhana showed her real colours—she was down 1-7—but went 10-9 up. However, a bad return cost her dear as Kavyashree deuced and on her first match point in the game, she clinched the title.

It was, indeed, a heartbreak for Suhana but credit to her that she made the final worth a while to watch.

The Sub-Junior Boys final will see yet another clash of two Delhi boys, Payas Jain and Yashansh Malik, both thick friends outside the court. Payas accounted for Shreyans Goel, also of Delhi, 4-1 while Yashansh defeated Hrishikesh Malhotra from Maharashtra by the same margin.

But it was the Girls semifinals that pushed the spectators to the edge of the seat, thanks to the never-say-die attitude of Tanisi Kirtani of Goa and Swastika Ghosh of Maharashtra.

Anusha, gunning for her third successive title, did not have any respite once Tanisi levelled 3-3 after winning the sixth game 12-10. But then Anusha’s experience held her in good stead as she closed out quickly on her Goa opponent in the decider. More or less a similar script was enacted by Swastika but Diya proved a hard nut to crack in the decider.

PROMISING NITYASHREE

Earlier, a notable performance from Tamil Nadu’s Nithyashree Mani grabbed the attention of the audience. The little girl from Chennai Achievers Club, currently training under Subin Kumar, made her maiden quarterfinal appearance, slaying along the way some promising paddlers in the Sub-Junior section. Unfortunately, she ran into Maharashtra’s Swastika who beat the TN girl 12-10, 11-5, 11-5, before being packed off by Diya in the semifinals.

Earlier, Preyesh Suresh Raj and Suhan Saini were on way to adding another title in Cadet Boys and Girls categories when they beat in the semifinals Sujan Bharadwaj and Nehal Suriyanarayanan in straight games. They will take on in the final Tamil Nadu’s Tarun Shanmugam and Kavyashree Baskar who accounted for Navaneet Kutty, also of Tamil Nadu, and Prithoki Chakraborti of West Bengal.

Results:

Sub-Junior Boys: Final: Payas Jain (Del) bt Yashansh Malik (Del) 11-9, 11-5, 11-13, 11-9, 11-5; Semifinals: Payas Jain bt Shreyans Goel (Del) 11-8, 11-4, 10-12, 11-6, 12-10, Yashansh Malik bt Hrishikesh Malhotra (Mah) 11-7, 11-9, 5-11, 11-5, 11-3.

Sub-Junior Girls: Final: Diya Chitale (Mah) bt Anusha Kutumbale (MP) 11-9, 11-7, 6-11, 10-12, 12-10, 11-9; Semifinals: Anusha Kutumbale bt Tanisi Kirtani (Goa) 6-11, 11-9, 11-9, 8-11, 11-7, 10-12, 11-7, Diya Chitale bt Swastika Ghosh (Mah) 8-11, 11-7, 11-6, 9-11, 13-11, 7-11, 11-6.

Cadet Boys: Final: Preyesh Suresh Raj (TN) bt Tarun Shanmugam (TN) 11-8, 11-3,11-7, 11-9; Semifinals: Preyesh Suresh Raj bt Sujan Bharadwaj (KNT) 11-9, 13-11, 11-7, Tarun Shanmugam bt Navaneet Kutty (TN) 11-7, 4-11, 11-7, 11-4.

Cadet Girls: Final: Kavyashree Baskar (TN) bt Suhana Saini (Har) 11-8, 11-8, 11-7, 11-13, 10-12, 12-10; Semifinals: Suhana Saini bt Nehal Suriyanarayanan (TN) 11-5, 11-4, 12-10, Kavyashree Baskar bt Prithoki Chakraborti (WB) 11-7, 11-2, 11-6.

Rajkot, October 16: Top-seed G. Sathiyan defeated Gujarat’s Devesh Karia 4-0 to claim his season’s first men’s singles title in the 11Even Sports National Ranking (West Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Veer Savarkar Municipal Corporation Stadium here today.

West Bengal’s Suthirtha Mukherjee went on to bag her second women’s singles title from zonal events when she defeated PSPB’s Mousumi Paul 4-2. But overall, this was her season’s third, including the Institutional crown she had won in July at Jaipur.

Unexpectedly, it was a cakewalk for Sathiyan against Devesh who was completely rendered helpless against a hot Sathiyan who executed his blistering strikes to unsettle the Gujarat man. In the face of a mounting offensive approach, Devesh wilted very early in the final never to recover.

In contrast, Sathiyan scored a 4-3 laboured win in the semifinals to oust North Zone finalist and southpaw Sanil Shetty who, after leading 2-1, gave in to the pressure tactics of his PSPB rival which proved to be Sanil’s undoing. In a roller-coaster ride of sorts, Shetty did win the sixth to level 3-3 but was visibly losing steam and it only helped the semifinalist at Chandigarh to step on the gas pedal to a 6-1 lead and finish off in style.

In the other all-lefthanders fight, Devesh was woefully placed at 0-2 and 5-9 in the third game against Jubin. But a few errors both at the net and some away-going shots at that time saw the PSPB paddler concede the ground to the Gujarat man. From there on, Devesh was a different player altogether as he won 8-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-3, 11-7, 14-12.

POETIC JUSTICE

In the end, a poetic justice was done to her pre-quarterfinal rival Krittwika Sinha Roy who, too, lost because of a change of bat midway through that match. But today, Mousumi was told to change it before the match with one side of her bat’s rubber damaged, as it happened to Krittwika on the second day.

Except for the first marathon game which Mousumi won after nine deuces and three game points, Suthirtha had the measure of her opponent. Mousumi did win the fourth game but Suthirtha was way ahead in the next and wrap it up quickly.

In women’s semifinals, Mousumi Paul continued with her winning ways as she outlasted top seed Madhurika Patkar 4-2 (11-5, 9-11, 11-7, 6-11, 11-9, 13-11) and second seed Suthirtha Mukherjee defeated former national champion and veteran Mouma Das 11-8, 11-8, 11-13, 11-1, 11-8. Madhurkia was the winner at the North Zone event at Chandigarh.

RONIT, PRIYADARSHINI CLAIM TITLES

Airports Authority of India’s Ronit Bhanja blanked out PSPB’s Birdie Boro 4-0 to take home the Youth Boys singles trophy while West Bengal’s Priyadarshini Das claimed her maiden Youth Girls title beating Tamil Nadu’s Amrutha Pushpak 4-3 in what was both paddlers’ first appearance in a final. Amrutha had her chance in the decider as she led 9-5 only to give away six points on the trot to her West Bengal opponent to her own disappointment and that of the crowd after having put up a nice fight to lead 3-2.

JUNIOR CROWN FOR MANAV, ARCHANA

Earlier, PSPB’s Manav Thakkar defeated Telangana’s Snehit Suravajjula 4-1 to retain the Junior Boys singles crown and the Junior Girls title went the way of Airports Authority of India’s Archana Girish Kamath. She downed Rajasthan’s Priyanka Pareek in straight games of 4-0. At Indore, she had won the Youth Girls trophy. Similarly, Manav also had won the Youth title at Indore but had to satisfy himself with the single crown win here.

Results:

Men’s Singles: Final: G. Sathiyan (PSPB) bt Devesh Karia (Guj) 11-5, 11-2, 11-3, 13-11.

Women’s Singles: Final: Suthirtha Mukherjee (WB) bt Mousumi Paul (PSPB) 18-20, 11-9, 11-5, 6-11, 11-9, 11-3.

Youth Boys Singles: Final: Ronit Bhanja (AAI) bt Birdie Boro (PSPB) 11-5, 11-9, 13-11, 11-7.

Youth Girls Singles: Final:  Priyadarshini Das (WB) bt Amrutha Pushpak (TN) 4-11, 11-7, 12-14, 11-9, 6-11, 11-6, 11-9.

Junior Boys Singles: Final: Manav Thakkar (PSPB) bt Snehit Suravajjula (TELG) 11-6, 7-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-8.

Junior Girls Singles: Final: Archana Girish Kamath (AAI) bt Priyanka Pareek (Raj) 11-5, 11-4, 11-7, 11-7.

Rajkot, October 15: Consistency is a problem which PSPB’s Harmeet Desai has not been able to surmount despite being on the circuit for a long time. The Gujarat paddler, who recaptured the national ranking title at Indore—his last title win came at Guwahati in the previous season—went down 3-4 to West Bengal’s Arjun Ghosh in the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals of 11Even Sports National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the Veer Savarkar Municipal Corporation Stadium here today.

Harmeet lost a 3-1 cushion, his form and rhythm as Arjun Ghosh raised the level of his game a notch higher to win the match 8-11, 11-8, 6-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-9 and march into the quarters. No doubt, credit should go to the West Bengal youngster who showed a lot of verve and kept prodding himself despite being down and out.

He upped the ante in the fifth game, winning it by minimal points and gradually kept himself floating to take the issue to the decider. In the decider, it seemed a touch-and-go affair as the two matched each other with great strokes, using the flanks well. A few blunders, especially when he netted the ball as Arjun was serving for the match and a service error just before that, cost Harmeet dear.

But Manav Thakkar and Devesh Karia fought well to keep the hosts’ flag high when the former outlasted AAI’s Sarthak Gandhi 4-2 and Karia rolled over PSPB’s Sourav Saha 4-1 to advance to the quarterfinals. Manav played a controlled and yet aggressive game despite Sarthak giving him a good fight.

In other matches, top seed G. Sathiyan beat Soumyadeep Roy 4-0, AAI’s Vivek Bhargava downed Rohit Chakraborth of LIC 4-1 and another AAI boy Ronit Bhanja outplayed PSPB’s Birdie Boro to win 4-2. For Santil Shetty, it was a cakewalk as he beat Nitin Thuruvengadam of Canara Bank 4-1 and Jubin Kumar repeated the score against Telangana’s Aman Balgu.

VARUNI SLAYS SHAMINI

Earlier, Varuni Jaiswal of Telangana made another giant killing when she humbled former national champion K. Shamini with a 4-3 verdict in women’s singles pre-quarterfinals. Down 0-5 and then 3-6 in the decider, Varuni never lost hope against a seasoned Shamini who is normally good in end games.

Varuni narrowed down the lead with the execution of her backhand drives and nice placements to go 7-6 up and then inched towards writing history. At 10-8 she missed a match point but recovered soon, when Shamini served, to shut her rival out at 10-9 as the 15-year-old eventually wrapped it up 11-9, 6-11, 11-6,8-11, 9-11,11-6, 11-9.

In other pre-quarters, fourth-seeded Manika beat Divya Deshpande 4-2, Ankita Das beat Nikhat Banu 4-0, Madhurika Patkar won 4-0 against Shruti Amrute, but in another upset Amrutha Pushpak of Tamil Nadu downed third seed Pooja Sahasrabudde 11-9, 11-8, 6-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-9. In a clash of veterans, Mouma Das defeated Poulomi Ghatak 4-3, after the latter led 3-2. Mouma had to win the last two games to stay in contention.

UNLUCKY KRITTWIKA

PSPB’s Krittwika Sinha Roy was unlucky to bow out in the pre-quarters as the change of bat did her in when she was leading 2-1. The damaged rubber of her bat had to be changed midway through and it came as a blessing in disguise to her opponent Mousumi Paul who went on to lead 3-2. Yet it was really brave of her to level and in the decider lost a match point as Mousumi won 6-11, 11-13, 11-9, 11-6, 11-3, 10-12, 12-10.

A visibly upset Krittwika said: “I couldn’t get the ply of my choice (in India) though I have the rubbers. If only I had the right ply, I would have carried an additional bat which I normally do. The borrowed bat didn’t suit my style of play.”

All the quarterfinals are slated for later tonight.

Rajkot, October 14: Top-seeded Madhurika Patkar made a short work of Shweta Parte to sail into the women’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the 11Even Sports National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the Veer Savarkar Municipal Corporation Stadium here today.

The PSPB paddler defeated her RBI rival 8-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-8, 11-9. Madhurika will next take on Maharashtra’s Shruti Amrute, who accounted for West Bengal’s Moumita Datta 11-5, 5-11, 11-9, 13-11, 11-7 in the round of 16.

For fourth-seeded Manika Batra, who won the singles crown at Indore, it was a setback or sorts as the Tamil Nadu girl Vidya Narasimhan took two games off her before the PSPB girl won 11-4, 5-11, 9-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-8 to go through. Former national champions Mouma Das and Poulomi Ghatak, too advanced, but Ghatak struggled against Haryana’s Sanya Sehgal. The PSPB woman won 11-6, 9-11, 6-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-3, 11-6. For Mouma it was an easy 4-1 win against RBI’s Pallabi Kundu.

Madhurika was rusty to begin with and it was showing in her first game as Shweta didn’t have to labour much to win it. Nevertheless, the top seed soon settled down and started unleashing her combination strokes which proved to Shweta’s undoing. Unable to contend even with innocuous blocks, the RBI woman lost her grip. She, however, put up some resistance in the fourth and fifth games but it was too late for a comeback.

Moumita, who axed Archana Kamath in group stages yesterday, was found wanting against the left-handed Shruti. Despite restoring parity, the West Bengal girl was unable to cope with the Maharashtra paddlers steady but crisp forehands.

Nikhat Banu, who survived a good scare from Tanisi Kirtani of Goa on the opening day, moved into the pre-quarters after some initial hiccups when she defeated AAI’s Chipia Frenaz 7-11, 14-12, 11-5, 11-6, 11-9. The girls from Gujarat not only took the first game but also managed to extend Nikhat in the second. But the Telangana girl won the second after three deuces which propelled her to the next round. She will run into PSPB’s Ankita Das who blanked Delhi’s Garima Goyal.

Though Mouusumi Paul struggled against RSPB’s Ashlesha Trehan in hter 4-2 win, she will have to contend with PSPB’s Krittwika Sinha Roy in the pre-quarters. Krittwika rolled over Rajasthan’s Priyanka Pareek 4-0.

BORO FIGHTS BACK

The men’s singles draw, which is of 64 players, saw a liberal spread of byes but among the ones that had failed to go past the first round included AAI’s Anirban Ghosh, who was outwitted by West Bengal’s Surajit Das. He played brilliantly and pinned Anirban to a distance from the table which enabled the West Bengal boy stage a fine recovery after being 1-2 down and win 4-2.

Maharashtra’s Anish Ambekar, too, entered the second round of the main draw beating Delhi’s Peeyush Prasad 11-4, 16-14, 11-6, 10-12, 11-9. The young paddler from Mumbai outlasted his Delhi opponent, particularly in the second game, which saw several deuces and both squandering three game points each.

Promising Birdie Boro from PSPB really struggled against State Bank of Patiala’s Vineet Chopra before subduing him 9-11, 5-11, 11-12, 6-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-7. No doubt, Boro had to bring in all his experience to the table but the marathon match certainly enhanced Chopra’s reputation from a non-entity to something special.

In Youth Boys and Youth Girls, the second stage matches of which will starttomorrow, 24 qualifiers from each section made the cut. Manav Thakkar and Archana Girish Kamath have been given the top seeding slots as they lead the ranking table with highest points. Besides, the two had won the titles in the Central Zone events held at Indore just a fortnight ago.

Ronit Bhanja, Arjun Ghosh and Jeet Chandra follow Manav in the Youth Boys seeding list while Sreeja Akula, Manushree Patil and Priyanka Pareek in the You Girls chart.

Rajkot, October 13: Archana Girish Kamath, the Youth Girls Singles champion in the last zonal at Indore, went down fighting 2-3 (12-14, 7-11, 11-9, 11-6, 4-11) to the Junior Singles title-winner Moumita Datta as the Bengaluru girl failed to make the main-draw cut in the 11Even Sports National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the Veer Savarkar Municipal Corporation Stadium here today.

This was the most shocking aspect of the women’s qualification round as 24 qualifiers emerged winners from as many groups to join the eight top-ranked players in the second stage play tomorrow.

The match proved decisive for both Archana and Moumita Datta from West Bengal after they had posted two wins each in group 17. After a prolonged play and a few deuces, Moumita won the first game on extended points. Upset as she was, Archana was unable to come to terms even in the next which she lost without a fight. However, the AAI girl fought back nicely to wrest the initiative from the West Bengal paddler to level scores. But in the decider, Moumita simply outplayed her rival with an attacking game which booked no challenge from Archana.

Telangana’s Shailu Noorbasha had good, fighting outings against all the three girls in the same group—Archana, Moumita Datta and Simin Atodaria (Gujarat)—but lost two matches 2-3.

But for these anomalies, most other groups threw the group leaders as winners while in some the second-placed player grabbed the top slot to enter stage 2. All top group players, as expected, had easy passage while in group 14 there was a three-way tie. Krittika Malik of Delhi took the appointed place while surprisingly Sagarika Mukherjee of Railways lost out despite winning against the Delhi girl 3-2 (9-11, 11-4, 11-8, 13-15, 11-5). What cost her place in the second stage was the loss to Telangana’s Naina who beat the RSPB girl 11-9, 11-7, 11-5.

Former national champion K. Shamini did not have to enter the arena and yet she made it to the main draw from group 1 after her group companions from Telangana and Madhya Pradesh failed to turn up after entering. Even Shruti Amrute of Maharashtra had to just play one match against Puja Paul of North Bengal and the 3-2 win was good enough to see her through. The other player in the group from RBI was absent.

Similarly, there were quite a few dropouts in men’s singles group matches, too, making the contests in group 1 and 2 a two-horse race. Sourav Saha of PSPB looks the candidate to make the grade from group 1 while it should be Sougata Sarkar of LIC from the other.

With one more round to go in the men’s event, a clear picture about the 40 group qualifiers will be known only later tonight. Meanwhile, the Youth events in both the sections will get underway. The Youth Girls and Youth Boys have been divided into 16 and 24 groups with the group winner qualifying for the next stage. They will be joined by the eight top ranked players from each section.

Rajkot, October 12: We may be into the third 11Even Sports National Ranking Table Tennis Championships this season, but are yet to witness the star casts of Indian table tennis up close in a national event of significance, barring the Institutional at Jaipur in July.

The West Zone meet, beginning at the Veer Savarkar Municipal Corporation Stadium here from tomorrow, will be no different. Engaged as they are with their club assignments abroad, A.Sharath Kamal, Soumyajit Ghosh and Anthony Amalraj have decided to shut themselves off from the domestic circuit for a while now.

They may have their own reasons for doing so. However, with Italian coach Massimo Costantini—he assumed charge as national coach early this month—in place and the Table Tennis Federation of India designing a road map for long-term preparations with him, the loss is that of the players.

No doubt, their absence can be well utilized by the rest in fray to build some reputation but it certainly takes the sting out of the tail as organizers and the TTFI suffer when they look for the glamour quotient. The sooner the players realize this, the better it would be for all.

The return of G. Sathiyan for the West Zone—he skipped Central Zone—augurs well for all concerned, including Harmeet Desai who won the Central Zone title beating Subhajit Saha 4-0. He should get a good competition here. Though Ravindra Kotiyan of RSCB has pulled out, players like Jubin Kumar, Utkarsh Gupta and others will add to the competitive edge in men’s singles.

Similarly, National women’s singles champion Manika Batra, also the winner at Indore, and Mouma Das along with K. Shamini, Pooja Sahasrabuddhe, Madhurika Patkar, Divya Deshpande, Suthirtha Mukkherjee and Archana Kamath, not to forget former national champion Paulomi Ghatak, will all lend balance to the women power.

Apart from Harmeet, an icon for hosts, Vadodara boy Manav Thakkar, with his recent performances, has become a household name in this part of the world. His double crown at Indore was a treat and the locals will be eager to watch him perform equally well at ‘home’. Manav, who was selected to represent Indian at the World Juniors later this year in South Africa, along with Ananth Devarajan and the rest of juniors, will enter the field on the third day itself following the men and women and Youth qualification events. Their showing in the domestic events will launch them on to bigger stages like 2022 and 2026 Asian and Commonwealth Games.

Constantini and Arup Basak, one of the national selectors, will be keenly watching them and making mental notes before ticking the eligibility boxes on which of these boys and girls can be a part of the long-term investment plans of the TTFI. Bigger opportunities are knocking at the doors of Cadet and Sub-Junior players and on the last two days of the championships they get the chance to prove themselves. After all, they are the future and the TTFI has chalked out concrete programmes for them until 2028.

In addition, good finish will also fetch top eight players in each category cash incentives from the Rs. 6 lakh prize money and, of course, sizeable ranking points.

Competition Manager Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer said Anil Dubey will be the chief referee for the event here with assistance coming from a team 40 technical officials which include Blue Badge, International and National umpires.

Ganeshan also said that Stiga tables and GKI Premium balls will be for the championships which are organized by the Rajkot District Table Tennis Association and conducted by the Gujarat State Table Tennis Association. On entries, the competition manager said the TTTFI has received over 800 entries from 600 odd players.

Indore, October 1: Closely on the heels of signing a long-term agreement with 11Even Sports, the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) has inked an all-compassing partnership pact with HVR Sports Inc., here today.

The agreement signed between TTFI president Prabhat Chandra Chaturvedi and Harshavardhan Reddy, chairman of HVR, takes immediate effect and is for a period of 16 years. Incidentally, the arrangement covers all major Games up to December 31, 2032.

Addressing the media persons soon after, the TTFI chief called it a momentous occasion in the annals of the federation and was proud to be a party to the two back-to-back agreements.

“Now that we have two big agreements—the latest one with a minimum guarantee of Rs. 2 crore per annum—our sport can really look up at par with some other disciplines. We can now have a larger pool of players to train and make moves towards achieving greater results. The agreement has come a shot in the arm for us to further the cause of table tennis in the country,” said Chaturvedi.

Reddy called it a “360 degree” agreement, meaning thereby that it covered all aspects of promotion and development of the sport. “Our agreement is meant to improve the lot of sportspersons, especially the table tennis players. Love and live off the sport is our motto. Towards that end, we’re starting from where it has to be started—at the grassroots. Sportspersons need not look for a job as his or her livelihood will be taken care of by the sport itself,” said Reddy.

In fact, Reddy said he was not merely looking at sponsoring events alone. “HVR’s idea is to create ideal conditions, including creating infrastructure, training players and coaches and lending support to technical officials. We want to slowly bring in players into the mainstream. We will start from block, panchyat, tehsil levels and finally districts so that more and more players are inducted. Our funding to states through TTFI is to take care of all these aspects,” he added.

There is an allocation of fund for nurturing young talent and train them abroad so that Cadet and Sub-Junior boys and girls become the beneficiary. “TTFI and we feel that these are the boys and girls who will go on to participate in 2028 or 2032 Olympics. So our concentration will be entirely on them, with all facilities provided to reach the height needed to win Olympic medals,” said Reddy.

Secretary-general Dhanraj Choudhary echoed his views saying that with Italian Massimo Costantini in place, TTFI will entrust him with the job identifying and training Junior and Youth Boys who can be targeted for 2024 Games, if not for the Tokyo Olympics, four years from now. “TTFI is also hiring two North Korean coaches along with two sparring partners who will be sent to states to take camps. We already have some requests from states and we are planning how well to use their services,” said Choudhary.

On the agreement with HVR, he said that it was the best thing to happen. “With funds coming from HVR, we can have special programmes for the players to help improve our standards,” he added.

Indore, October 1: It was a repeat performance for Chinmaya Kapil Somaiya of PSPB Academy and Anusha Kutumbale of Madhya Pradesh in the Sub-Junior Boys and Girls titles as for both Preyesh Suresh Raj of Tamil Nadu and Suhana Saini of Haryana who did an encore in the Cadet Boys and Girls sections in the 11Even Sports National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships which concluded at the Abhay Prashal here today.

All these winners had claimed trophies in the North Zone championships at Chandigarh this June and have thus maintained straight records in two back-to-back zonal events.

In a tough fight between Chinmaya and Payas, the PSPBA boy proved a notch better than the Delhi youngster in spite of the latter levelling score. But Payas made far too many mistakes in the fifth that really let him down. So much so, Chinmaya closed him out rather early in the next for 4-2 win and putting the issue beyond Payas.

For Anusha, however, it was a cakewalk as the local girl proved too hot for Delhi’s Vanshika Bhargava who lost 0-4. The two had met in the final at Chandigarh, too, where the MP girl had come out winners.

As for Suhana, she surged ahead with a 2-0 lead but Kavyashree Baskar pulled one back to put some kind of resistance. Even before the Tamil Nadu girl could think of staging any recovery, Suhana won the next on extended points and then the fifth without any inhibition, though closely, win the final 4-1.

Jash Modi had everything going for him in the decider as he has had a sizeable lead but let the Tamil Nadu boy Preyesh off the hook as the latter won all the three games with great determination despite trailing 1-3 until then. In the decider, especially, he gathered himself up from a worst situation to overcome Jash for 4-3 victory.

In the semifinals, if Payas won without a swat against PSPBA’s Jeho, Kapil Chinmaya had to really put up a fight to finish against Dev. It was courageous of the latter that despite being down 1-3 he regrouped himself and playing a calm but effective attacking game won the fifth three points adrift of his opponent. Jeho had claimed the North Zone title at Chandigarh.

Rattled as he was Kapil lost the next rather very badly when he was stopped at just three points as Dev ran off with a great lead. Yet, Kapil showed great anticipation in the decider and turned the tables against Dev for what looked an easy win in the end.

Local girl Anusha Kutumbale had a comfortable 2-0 lead before the Mumbai girl Diya launched an all-out attack winning the next two games closely but the MP girl wrested the intiative to go up once again. Having gained a rhythm in the previous game, Anusha shut out Diya without giving semblance of a chance.  Delhi’s Vanshika had no such problems against Goa’s Tanisi Kirtani. Even though Vanshika lost a game, she had a complete control of the semifinal.

Except for Jash Modi who struggled against Rudra Narayan Ghosh, all other semifinal matches in Cadet Boys and Girls were a one-sided affair. Rudra fought well to keep himself in the match but the Jash proved too good when it came to clinching crucial points.

Results:

Sub-Junior Boys: Final: Chinmaya Kapil Somaiya (PSPBA) bt Payas Jain (Del) 11-9, 3-11, 11-3, 6-11, 11-9, 11-2; Semifinals: Kapil Chinmaya bt Dev Shroff 4-3, Payas Jain bt Jeho. H 4-0; Quarterfinals: Jeho. H bt Siddhant Sur Roy 3-0, Payas Jain bt Jayabrata Bhattacharya 3-1, Kapil Chin maya Somaiya bt Yashansh Malik 3-1, Dev Shroff bt Shreyaans Goel 3-1.

Sub-Junior Girls: Final: Anusha Kutumbale (MP) bt Vanshika Bhargava (Del) 11-6, 13-11, 11-4, 11-4; Semifinals: Anusha Kutumbale bt Diya Chitale 4-2, Vanshika Bhargava bt Tanisi Kirtani 4-1; Quarterfinals: Anusha Kutumbale bt Swastika Ghosh 3-1, Diya Chitale bt Sharmitha Srinivasan 3-1, Tanisi Kirtani bt Tisha Kohli 3-0, Vanshika Bhargava bt Vaishnavi Vijayakumar 3-2.

Cadet Boys: Final: Preyesh Suresh Raj (TN) bt Jash Modi (Mah) 8-11, 11-13, 12-10,8-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-7; Semifinals: Preyesh Suresh Raj bt Tarun Shanmugam 3-0, Jash Modi bt Rudra Narayan Ghosh 3-2; Quarterfinals: Preyesh Suresh bt harsh Patel 3-0, Tharun Shanmugam bt Nagesh Verenker 3-0, Jash Modi bt Sujan Bharadwaj 3-2, Rudra Narayan Ghosh 3-1.

Cadet Girls: Final: Suhana Saini (Har) bt Kavyashree Baskar (TN) 11-9, 11-8, 10-12, 12-10, 11-9; Semifinals: Suhana Saini bt Lakshita Narang 3-1, Kavyashree Baskar bt Ambika Gupta 3-1; Quarterfinals: Lakshita Narang bt Pritha Vartikar 3-1, Suhana Saini bt Prithoki Chakraborti 3-1, Kavyashree Baskar bt Sucheta prosad 3-0, Ambita Gupta bt Tina Cathrin Dass 3-0.

Indore, September 30: National champion in Cadet Boys, Vishwa Deenadayalan from Tamil Nadu, graduated to the next level this year and could feel the pressure straight as he exited in Sub-Junior Boys’ second round of the 11Even Sports National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Abhay Prashal here today.

Normally a fluent player with excellent attacking strokes, the Chennai boy was ill at east when he took on Sahil Joshi of Maharashtra who, after some initial struggle, won 3-2 and move into the pre-quarterfinals. In contrast, Delhi’s Payas Jain, who finished the runner-up at the Kolkata Nationals, absorbed the higher category demands to move into the pre-quarterfinals beating Abhirup Paul Roy of North Bengal 3-1.

This exemplified the need for right exposure that one needs to get at this age and stage as did Payas, thanks to his participation in ITTF global circuit events earlier his season. Vishwa has to partly own the blame for, after having taken a 2-0 lead, he let his Maharashtra opponent off the hook. No doubt, he lost the third game very badly (5-11) but he had his chances in the next which he lost by minimal points and also the decider after being 5-5 at one time. Sahil won 6-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-8.

Payas, despite losing the third game, had hit the groove nicely to win 11-7, 12-10, 7-11, 11-3. In another interesting second round outing, Siddhant Sur Roy of North Bengal beat Delhi boy Krishna Jain 9-11, 8-11, 14-12, 14-12, 11-7. The North Bengal had the pass the muster in games third and fourth which saw a couple of deuces and dropping two match-points.

Anargya Manjunath, a promising paddler from Karnataka, is yet to live up to her reputation this season as she went down in the second round to Maharashtra’s Diya Chitale 2-3. Diya, a bronze medal winner at the ITTF’s World Hopes Week last year at Shanghai, had a distinct advange and with her clean stroke-making ability, outwitted Anargaya.

With players divided into 32 groups in respective events of the sub-junior boys and girls sections, as many players in each category qualified for Stage 2, the knockout phase. However, 24 byes in each section meant some players went through a further sifting with only the best among qualifiers moving into the second round of the main draw where they were joined by the eight top-ranked players who got direct Stage 2 entry.

With the Central Zone championships approaching the business end tomorrow, it was a little harsh on the players, some of whom had to play as many as five rounds on a single day. With number of Cadet and Sub-Junior paddlers growing, the competition department is equally puzzled without knowing how to make things easy for the young players.

These two being TTFI’s promotional events of national ranking championships, the tendency among players is to enter in both categories. The Cadet Boys and Girls are allowed to play in Sub-Junior events. This, in turn, helps the players get better exposure good competition when they play in a higher category.

Results:

Sub-Junior Boys: Round 1: Ahir Roy (WB) bt Varun Shankar (Telg) 3-2, Krishna Jain (Del) bt Rajveer Shah (Mah) 3-0, Sahil Joshi (Mah) bt Ritesh Thomas (Telg) 3-0, Darshil Jariwala (Guj) bt Jash Jobalia (Mah) 3-0, Preyesh Suresh Raj (TN) bt Soumyadeep Sarkar (NB) 3-1, Sourajit Halder (WB) bt Shriyash Bhosale (Mah) 3-2, Riswav Dey (WB) bt Aadarsh Om Cherti (Del) 3-0, Shounak Shinde (Mah) bt Abhilash Raval (Guj) 3-1.

Round 2: Yashansh Malik (Del) bt Preyesh Suresh Raj (TN) 3-1, Deepit Patel (Mah) bt Keshavan Kannan (Telg) 3-0, Harshil Kothari (Guj) bt Lalroluahpuia (Har) 3-1, Chinmaya Kapil (PSPBA) bt Sourajit Halder (WB) 3-0, Dev Shroff (Mah) bt Rishway Dey (WB) 3-1, Mainak Das (NB) bt Arka Kumar Gogoi (Asm) 3-0, Shreyans Goel (Del) bt Harish Kusel (TN) 3-1, Alberto Lrruata (PSPBA) bt Shounak Shinde (Mah) 3-0, Jeho H. bt Ahir Roy (WB) 3-0, Shivam Das (Mah) bt Rathim Kumar (KNT) 3-0, Ayaz Murad (Guj) bt Tamal Ballav (WB) 3-2, Siddhant Sur Roy (NB) bt Krishna Jain (Del) 3-2, Sahil Joshi (Mah) bt Vishwa Deenadayalan (TN) 3-2, Payas Jain (Del) bt Abhirup Paul Roy (NB) 3-1, Satyamgiri Gupta (PSPBA) bt Hrishikesh Malhotra (Mah) 3-1, Jayabrata Bhattacharjee (NB) bt Darshil Jariwal (Guj) 3-1.

Sub-Junior Girls: Round 1: Suhana Narjinary (UP) 3-0, Shreya Shiva Kumar (TN) bt Jheel Toshniwal (Raj) 3-0, Mouli Modak (WB) bt Anjali Naineni (Telg) 3-0, Anargya Manjunath (KNT) bt Radhapriya Goel (UP) 3-1, Vidhi Ameet Shah (Mah) bt Nithyashree Mani (TN) 3-2, Koushiki Dasgupta (WB) bt Malpani Sanskruti (Guj) 3-0, Vaishnavi Vijaya Kumar (TN) bt Srivalli Ramya Tadepalli (Telg) 3-2, Maria Ancy John (TN) bt Kheya Shah (Mah) 3-2.

Round 2 (Incomplete): Anusha Kutumbale (MP) bt Suhana Narjinany (UP) 3-1, Sataporni De (NB) bt Fatema Filzah Kadri (Guj) 3-1, Anubha Bajan (Del) bt Ananya Santra (WB) 3-1, Swatistika Ghosh (Mah) bt Shreya Shiva Kumar (TN) 3-0, Sharmistha Srinivasan (TN) bt Mouli Modak (WB) 3-1, Poymantee Baisya (WB) bt Lakshita Narang (Del) 3-0, Diya Chitale (Mah) bt Anargya Manjunath (KNT) 3-2.