Ronit wins third junior title, Moumita her second

Guwahati, November 17: Top-seed Ronit Bhanja of West Bengal completed his third title of the season when he beat Manav Thakkar of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board Academy (PSPBA) 4-3 to lift the Junior Boys trophy in the National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Deshbakhta Tarunram Phukan Indoor Stadium here today.

Ronit had won two titles before in Chennai (South Zone) and Jamnagar (Central Zone) before squandering one at Thane (West Zone). Manav was the winner at New Delhi in the North Zone event held earlier this month.

West Bengal’s Moumita Dutta, who beat Tamil Nadu’s Harshavardhini Ravichandran 4-2, claimed back-to-back titles to round off a good season after she was banned for a year. Moumita won her first title this season during the North Zone championships at New Delhi.  

The Junior Boys final had the expected thrills with both Manav and Ronit complimenting each other in strokes as well as in attacks. None was willing to yield an inch and countered so nicely that the match received all round appreciation from the spectators. No doubt, Manav had the upper hand in the decider but only a few points separated the winner from the loser when Ronit deuced at 10-10 and finally won on his second match-point for his second title.

Earlier, both players were also guilty of giving away few negative points in their anxiety to close in on the lead of each other. Manav is particularly blamed for letting his opponent off the hook at 10-8.  The final also witnessed four extended points games, both sharing two each including the decider by Ronit.  

As for Moumita, who had a nice grip over the final having won the first game. But the Tamil Nadu girl came back to lead 2-1. Yet, Moumita had the last laugh winning the next three games rather easily—the sixth game by minimal point.

In the semifinals, Ronit beat Ananth Devarajan of Tamil Nadu 4-1 without any inhibition while it was Manav Thakkar of PSPBA was even harsh when he disposed of Delhi’s Parth Virmani. The former won 4-0 in less than 25 minutes. Manav had earlier in the quarterfinals inflicted a similar verdict against Anirban Ghosh of West Bengal while Parth struggled to overcome another West Bengal paddler, Akash Chowdhury. The Delhi boy was stretched full distance. Ananth Deverajan, who displayed excellent form in the quarterfinals failed to replicate it, though he managed a game off Ronit Bhanja.

In girls’ semifinals, Harshavardhini maintained her earlier tempo—she won 4-2 in the quarterfinal against Maharashtra’s Ashlesha Trehan—and thumped Telengana’s Sreeja Akula 4-0. Surprisingly, the Airports Authority of India girl, who beat Priyanka Pareek of Rajasthan 4-2 in the quarterfinals, was out of tune in the semifinals. Moumita Datta carried her good form after a confident win in the pre-quarterfinals—she was 0-2 down and went on to win the match—into the quarterfinals and semifinals to account for Delhi’s Kritika (4-0) and Varuni Jaiswal of Telangana 4-1. Varuni, a very good player, was rendered helpless in the face of Moumita’s calculated attack.

In the men’s pre-quarterfinals, top-seeded Anthony Amalraj and Subhajit Saha, Jubin Kumar, Sudhanshu Grover, Utkarsh Gupta, Abishek Ravichandran and Devesh Karia and Harmeet Desai moved up. Harmeet, who was in a bad form in the last three ranking tournaments, did well to beat RSPB’s Ravindra Kotiyan 4-2 while unseeded Utkarsh Gupta of Delhi accounted for PSPB’s Abhishek Yadav 4-2 in a surprise pre-quarterfinal outing. Equally good was Abishek Ravichandran who adapted himself well to the defensive Lalrin Puia of PSPB to and beat him 4-1 in his own slow-motion game.

Top-seed Manika exits

But top-seeded women’s player and North Zone winner Manika Batra bowed out to Railway’s Pallabi Kundu who won 4-1 in a one-sided match. Fifth seed K. Shamini, who was returning to the fold after skipping the last tournament, defeated Haryana’s Riti Shankar 4-0 to show some form. She will be meeting AAI’s Ayhika Mukherjee in the quarterfinals. Divya Deshpande, Central Zone titlist, came from behind to beat Takeme Sarkar 4-2 of West Bengal. Other seeded players had it easy and entered the quarterfinals.

Results:

Junior Boys: Final: Ronit Bhanja (WB) bt Manav Thakkar (PSPBA) 4-3 (11-7, 11-9, 11-13, 11-13, 8-11, 13-11, 13-11); Semifinals: Ronit Bhanja bt Ananth Devarajan (TN) 4-1 (11-7, 11-5, 6-11, 11-0, 13-11), Manav Thakkar bt Parth Virmani (Del) 4-0 (13-11, 11-6, 11-6, 12-10); Quarterfinals: Ronit Bhanja bt Sarthak Seth (UP) 4-1 (11-7, 7-11 11-4, 14-12, 17-15), Ananth Devarajan bt Jeet Chandra (WB) 4-2 (11-5, 2-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9, 14-12), Manav Thakkar bt Anirban Ghosh (WB) 4-0 (11-5, 11-5, 11-2, 11-4), Parth Virmani bt Akash Chowdhury (WB) 4-3 (12-10, 7-11, 10-12, 12-10, 11-5, 7-11, 11-3).

Junior Girls: Final: Moumita Datta (WB) bt Harshavardhini Ravichandra (TN) 4-2 (11-9, 6-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-9); Semifinals: Harshavardhini Ravichandran bt Sreeja Akula (AAI) 4-0 (13-11, 11-4, 11-6, 11-4), Moumita Datta bt Varuni Jaiswal (Telg) 4-1 (15-17, 11-9, 11-7, 11-4, 11-8); Quarterfinals: Harshavardhini Ravichandran t Ashlesha Trehan (Mah) 4-2 (7-11, 11-9, 12-10, 9-11, 11-1, 11-2), Sreeja Akula bt Priyanka Pareek (Raj) 4-2 (11-9, 11-4, 6-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8), Moumita Datta bt Kritika Malik (Del) 4-0 (11-5, 11-7, 11-8, 11-5), Varuni Jaiswal bt Yashini Sivasankar (TN) 4-1 (11-9, 12-10, 6-11, 12-10, 11-6).

TTFI Press release