Manav, Moumita claim Junior titles

Indore, September 28, 2016: Putting his quarterfinal loss in Youth Boys behind, top-seed Manav Thakkar of PSPB outplayed West Bengal’s Jeet Chandra to lift the Junior Boys title with a 4-0 verdict even as Moumita Datta, making amends for her state mate’s loss, defeated Maharashtra’s Manushree Patil 4-2 for the Junior Girls crown in the 11Even Sports National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships starts at the Abhay Prashal here today.

Manav had just about 10 minutes break after his Youth Boys quarterfinal in which he lost to Delhi’s Utkarsh Gupta 4-3. Forgetting the disappointment, Manav stepped into the show-court arena with all determination to play the Junior Boys final and it was visible from the word go as the end-result showed.

After leading 3-0, Manav was pushed to the wall in the fourth game when Jeet led 10-7. But Manav, who is known to come out of any tricky situation, did the impossible and won the four game 12-10 . In fact, he was unstoppable before that even for a player of Jeet’s calibre who is equally adept at attacking.  

Never did any of them relented from attacking and the final made everyone’s day, including Manav’s who was able to go home with at least one title after being in contention for a double.  

Moumita Datta played a far superior game to her Maharashtra opponent Manushree Patil and deservingly lifted the winner’s trophy.

The intense final began with the players matching each other with strokes and the first game went into deuce before Moumita winning it on extended points. Then it was the turn of Manushree to win the next with the minimal point. It was then that the West Bengal paddlers upped the ante and took the next two games to go 3-1 up. But the Maharashtra girl fought back well to lead 8-0 but Moumita closed in on and yet lost fifth game very closely. In the sixth, Moumita surged into a good lead and kept hitting forehand winners to shut out Manushree.

RESULTS:

Junior Boys: Final: Manav Thakkar (PSPB) bt Jeet Chandra (WB) 11-9, 11-4, 11-7, 12-10;Semifinals: Manav Thakkar (PSPB) bt Manush Shah (Guj) 9-11, 11-3, 11-8, 11-9, 12-10, Jeet Chandra (WB) bt Parth Virmani (Del) 6-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-8, 14-12.

Junior Girls: Final: Moumita Datta (WB) beat Manushree Patil (Mah) 12-10, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 9-11, 11-5; Semifinals: Moumita Datta bt Shailu Noorbasha (AP) 9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-5, 11-5, Manushree Patil  bt Srushti Haleangadi (Mah) 5-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-9, 12-10.

TTFI release