Chennai, August 16, 2015: Time-outs is a double-edged
weapon. It can make or break one’s confidence. But national and Institutional
champion Soumyajit Ghosh, with his second service intact, took time out at 9-8
and it did wonders. He served to go 10-8 and finished the men’s singles final
soon after when his opponent Harmeet Desai served to add more silverware to his
collection at the National Ranking (South Zone) Table Tennis Championships here
at the Jawaharlal Nehru multipurpose Indoor Stadium today.
The Siliguri man beat PSPB team mate Harmeet Desai and the
win fetched him Rs. 66,000. Desai got half of that amount for finishing
runner-up. Earlier, Ankita, also hailing from Siliguri, beat here PSPB
colleague Pooja Sahasrabudhe in the women’s singles final 4-3.
Despite losing the first game rather poorly, Ghosh showed
grit and determination to keep things under control. However, in the fifth game
Desai just toyed with his rival, going 6-0 up swiftly and closing out the game
at 11-2 for a 2-3 score. But that was all he could do as Ghosh, in the next
game, finished it off in spite of letting Desai score three successive points
at 8-5.
The Pooja-Ankita final failed to catch the imagination,
despite the two playing and missing and giving away negative points. No doubt,
there were some good short rallies and clean winners, yet none had a firm grip
until the decider where Ankita won a few crucial points. The match swung from
one end to another when Ankita, trailing 1-2, picked herself up to put up a
good fight and lead 3-2 before letting her rival clone in on. Ankita collected
Rs. 55,000 for the title effort and Pooja just half the sum.
The Youth Boys and Girls titles went to Abhishek Yadav and
Reeth Rishya, respectively. They also pocketed Rs. 24,200 and Rs. 20,000, respectively,
being the winner’s purse.
On fourth championship-point Abhishek got lucky when
Sudhanshu failed to send the ball across and netted for the southpaw to heave a
big sigh of relief. Incidentally, this was his fourth Youth title, including
three in a row. Last year, he began his journey for the first time and notched
up a win at the Central Zone, East Zone and North Zone. In between, he missed
one at Gandhidham, where the West Zone was played.
The former team mates of PSPB Academy
What was remarkable about the two’s game was that they were
never afraid of attacking coupled with the ability to retrieve even the deep,
long shots. The final marked several good rallies, but even more attracting
were their crispy backhands and down-the-line forehands.
Reeth could finally become the bride that she wanted to be
after twice finishing only the bridesmaid last season at the North and East
Zone events, at Agra and Durgapur . She had her problems against Ayhika
as the AAI girl was ready with her counters to whatever Reeth was sending
across. But her change of plan, after being 1-2 down, worked to the PSPB girl’s
advantage.
Reeth, until then struggling to land the ball, made good
variations and tricked with her cross-court attack which really paid dividends.
“I’ve finally made it. The monkey is off my back and I can
breathe easy now,” said Reeth, who trains under Ravi Venkatesh and Vasu at the
Maharishi Vidhya Mandir at Chetpet in Chennai.
Except for the semifinal between top-seed Soumyajit Ghosh
and No. 2 seed G. Sathiyan in the men’s singles and the one between Ankita Das
and Mouma Das in the women’s singles, the other two proved to be one-sided.
Both Ghosh and Ankita won their respective matches 4-2.
One can understand the 38-year-old Anindita Chakraborty
unable to withstand the onslaught against a relatively younger Pooja
Sahasrabudhe, but it is difficult to explain away the 29-year-old Anthony
Amalraj, who has a national title to his credit, bowing out without a fight
against Gujarat ’s Harmeet Desai.
It was a pathetic game that Amalraj played and it reflected
on the score and the authority which with Harmeet dismissed his presence
without dropping a sweat on a gloomy, sultry day. At least he did put up a
semblance of fight at the Inter-Institutional championships in New Delhi against the same
opponent before losing the semifinals there.
Amalraj, who was until recently playing for a Polish club,
has switched his loyalty and has now joined a club in Spain . One doesn’t know how well he
is performing abroad in club assignments, but unfortunately, his domestic graph
is steadily going down.
In Youth Boys, Ravindra Kotiyan would have wanted his
quarterfinal form to continue but could not replicate it against the
experienced Abhishek Yadav. The PSPB left-hander played brilliantly to outlast
his RSPB rival 4-1. Abhishek’s teammate Sudhanshu Grover, too, had made it
rather easy against Delhi ’s
Utkarsh Gupta with a 4-1 verdict.
Results:
Men’s Singles: Final: Soumyajit Ghosh (PSPB) bt Harmeet
Desai (PSPB) 4-2 (3-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-8, 2-11, 11-8); Semifinals:
Soumyajit Ghosh bt G. Sathiyan (PSPB) 4-2 (11-7, 11-13, 11-2, 2-11, 11-9,
11-6), Harmeet Desai bt Anthony Amalraj (PSPB) 4-0 (11-8, 11-9, 12-10, 11-3).
Women’s Singles: Final: Ankita Das (PSPB) bt Pooja
Sahasfabudhe (PSPB) 4-3 (11-8, 10-12, 7-11, 11-4, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6); Semifinals:
Pooja Sahasrabudhe bt Anindita Chakraborty (RSPB) 4-1 (14-12, 10-12, 11-8,
11-6, 11-3), Ankita Das bt Mouma Das (PSPB) 4-2 (11-6, 11-7, 8-11, 5-11, 11-8,
11-8).
Youth Boys Singles: Final: Abhishek Yadav (PSPB) bt
Sudhanshu Grover (PSPB) 4-3 (10-12, 11-5, 7-11, 11-6, 5-11, 11-6, 15-13); Semifinals:
Abhishek Yadav bt Ravindra Kotiyan (RSPB) 4-1 (11-5, 7-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-8),
Sudhanshu Grover bt Utkarsh Gupta (Dli) 4-1 (6-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-2, 11-8).
Youth Girls Singles: Final: Reeth Rishya (PSPB) bt
Ayhika Mukherjee (AAI) 4-3 (11-8, 6-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-8); Semifinals:
Reeth Rishya bt R. Harshavardhini (TN) 4-2 (10-12, 11-8, 11-3, 11-13, 11-6,
11-6), Ayhika Mukherjee bt Archana Kamath Girish (AAI) 4-1 (11-3, 7-11,
11-7, 14-12, 11-9).
TTFI Press release
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