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

Manav-Jeet showdown in Junior Boys final

Indore, September 28, 2016: Top-seed Manav Thakkar of PSPB decimated Gujarat’s Manush Shah 4-1 to enter the Junior Boys final of the 11Even Sports National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships starts at the Abhay Prashal here today.

Manav will take on Jeet Chandra in the final later tonight along with the girls match. The second-seeded West Bengal player defeated Delhi’s Parth Virmani 4-1, in an equally one-sided second semifinal.

Both the boys’ semifinals did not raise the kind of interests which the girls semifinals did. Yet, it must be said to the credit for both finalists that they never gave any leeway to their opponents and were just keen to wind up as early as possible for adequate rest before the final.

In a field thrown open to the unseeded players—not a single seed sprouted—in the Junior Girls section, two unseeded players made the occasion memorable for them winning their semifinal matches. In the first, West Bengal’s Moumita Datta defeated Andhra Pradesh’s Shailu Noorbasha 4-1, while it was Manushree Patil of Maharashtra, who downed state mate Srushti Haleangadi 4-1, in the second.

Moumita, who hasn’t had a steady season last year, was at her best today when she took on the Andhra girl. Both prone to attacking, Moumita committed fewer mistakes, particularly on her backhand, whereas Shailu’s error percentage increased by the game. For instance, Shailu looked good when she used the flanks to attack, forcing Moumita on the back foot in the first game which the former won.

After sizing her up and pulling her socks up, Momita did well to level the score in the second with blistering forehands, including some special winners down the line. This opened her out as she adopted the same method in the next three to stop Shailu on her tracks even as the Andhra girl was making more and more mistakes either at the net or failing to keep the ball on table.

A similar pattern was noticed in the Manushree-Srushti match as the latter opened with an easy win.  Yet, Manushree had an upper hand at least until the fifth game when Srushti cashed in on Manushree’s accurate shots deserted her suddenly to give a breather to her state mate. Nevertheless, she kept a slender lead but came down to a solitary point when Srushti made it 10-11 with a timeout. But the one-minute break only helped Manushree who received from Srjushti only to kill it with a precise forehand to the right corner for the match point.

Even in women’s singles, only two seeds—Manika Batra and Madhurika Patkar—survived while all others fell by the wayside on a hot afternoon. Top-seed Suthirtha Mukherjee, also title winner at the Institutional championships, went down to former national champion Paulomi Ghatak 4-3 in a thrilling pre-quarterfinal. She will meet in quarters Divya Deshpande who accounted for Krittwika Sinha Roy 4-3 after the latter squandered away a comfortable lead. Manika Batra beat Railways’ Anandita Chakraborty 4-0 and Ayhika Mukherjee handed out a similar verdict to Mouma Das from top half.

Reeth Rishya downed third seed Pooja Sahasrabuddhe 4-3 to earn a quarterfinal meeting with Ankita Das, who beat Archana Kamath 4-3 while K. Shamini won 4-1 against Takeme Sarkar and Madhurika Patkar beat Pooja Sharma 4-0 to complete the quarterfinal line-up from the bottom half.

RESULTS:

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

TTFI release

Ananth, Priyanka, Manushree enter main draw

Indore, September 27, 2016: Ananth Devarajan, celebrating his singles entry in the forthcoming World Junior Championships at Cape Town, South Africa, topped his group to enter the men’s singles main draw in the 11Even Sports National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships starts at the Abhay Prashal here today.

Drawn in group 23, he blanked out Delhi’s Sameer Sahni 12-10, 13-11, 9-11, 11-5. Ananth and Sameer having won against Saiel Wadwekar fromMadhya Pradesh, it was imperative for them to win the crucial match between the two. Ananth emerged triumphant with an emphatic 3-0 win. Earlier, Sameer struggled against local boy Saiel before winning 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5.

In group 24, Sanish Ambekar from Maharashtra pitch-forked himself to the top spot from original third position in the group with two wins over rivals Mohit Verma of Haryana and Subendhu Show from West Bengal. For Sanish, it was rather easy against the West Bengla paddler but Mohit from Haryana gave some anxious moments as he managed to take a game off Sanish who won 11-9, 11-6, 9-11, 11-5. But Airports Authority of India’s Anirban Ghosh failed to qualify from group 31 when he lost his third-round match against Arnab Sarkar 9-11, 11-6, 7-11, 10-12, giving a clear main draw passage to the West Bengal player.

Manush Shah from Guajrat, placed in a four-man group 37, emerged on top with three fine wins, his notable 3-0 triumph coming against Akash Nath of West Bengal which paved his way into the second stage. Zubin Taraporwalla from Maharashtra, too, qualified with an all-win record in group 40. Other group qualifiers included Ayush Tayal from Haryana, Shreyas Telang from Karnataka, E. Prabhakaran from RSPB and Asif Haque from RBI. But for these players, all original group toppers had made it to the main draw.

In women’s singles, RBI’s Sweta Parte exited without making an impression, thanks to Railways Ashlesha Trehan who pushed her way into the main draw with a fine 3-0 win. She had earlier beaten Kefira Rodrigues of Goa 3-0. Manushree Patil from Maharashtra beat two of her group rivals in Shreya Ghosh (RSPB) and Assam’s Adrija Sharma to enter the women’s singles stage 2. But for these surprises, all top players expectedly went through the motion to qualify.

With 24 joining qualifiers joining the eight top-ranked players in Junior Girls, Maharashtra led by example with six of their players joining fourth-seeded Shruti Amrute, who got a direct main draw entry, to swell their number to seven in a field of 32 in the knockout stage. In comparison, North Bengal and Delhi have four paddlers making the necessary cut and leaving other states way behind.

The biggest surprise is that Rajasthan’s Priyanka Pareek has been seeded No. 1 for the first time, thanks to her nail-biting title-winning performance in the North Zone at Chandigarh. Priyanka beat West Bengal’s Prapti Sen 4-3 in the Junior Girls final.  

In the first round match later today, the left-hander takes on qualifier Priyanka Sarkar from North Bengal. Tamil Nadu’s Selenadeepthi Selvakumar and Abinaya Ramesh are behind the Rajathan girl at No. 2 and 3, while Shruti Amrute is followed by another Tamil Nadu girl, Yashini Sivashankar at No. 5. Manushree Patil, the winner of West Zone title last season, is at No. 6 with Varuni Jaiswal (Telangana) and Kushi Viswanath (Karnataka) following the Maharashtra girl, in that order.

Both Manushree Patil and Priyanka also qualified for the women’s singles main draw which showed that they are slowly but surely making inroads into untried territories.

Manav Thakkar has rightfully occupied the No. 1 spot in seeding in the Junior Boys with West Bengal’s Jeet Chandra behind him at No. 2 and they are followed by UP’s Sarthak Seth and Gujarat’s Manush Shah at No. 3 and 4 respectively.

All the eight seeded players and a few lucky ones have been given first-round bye with only 16 players play first-round matches. Of the eight, the best turned out to be the one between Tamil Nadu’s R. Santosh Kumar and Rohan Jamadagni from Karnataka. The Tamil Nadu paddler won 3-2 after some struggle to enter the second round.

Results (Main Draw):

Junior Boys: Round of 64: Jayabrata Bhattgcharjee (NB) bt Tejas Kamble (Mah) 5-11, 14-12, 11-9, 11-8, Hardikar Mandar (Mah) bt Ayan Pal (WB) 4-11, 11-7, 13-11, 11-13, 11-9, Harsh Shristava (PSPBA) bt Abhirup P Roy (NB) 9-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7, H. Jeho (PSPBA) bt Samrat Chakraborty (NB) 7-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-4, Anukram Jain (PSPBA) bt Sai Tejesh (Telg) 11-5, 11-8, 11-6, Snehit Suravajjula (Telg) bt C. Kapil Somaiya (PSPBA) 17-15, 11-7, 13-11, Harshvardhan Lahoti (Telg) bt Ajaysingh Patil (Mah) 11-8, 6-11, 11-4, 11-2, Santosh Kumar. R (TN) bt rohan Jamadagni (KNT) 7-11, 11-3, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7.  

TTFI release

Favourites ensure safety but some struggle for top spots

Indore, September 26, 2016: With only two rounds scheduled in men’s and women’s singles first stage matches on the opening day some of the top names in the women’s section, more or less, sealed their main draw places in the 11Even Sports National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships starts at the Abhay Prashal here today. However, a confirmation will come only tomorrow.

In women’s singles, most players in the latter groups completed two rounds and their safe passage into the main draw will now depend on the last match as only the group topper moves up. West Bengal’s Manisha Mukherjee in group 32 scored two clear wins but had to struggle against Delhi’s Kritika Malik. Manisha won 13-11, 6-11, 11-7, 9-11, 12-10. With that loss, Kritika is tied in second position with Maharashtra’s Srushti Haleangadi who, like the Delhi girl, has 1-1 record and the match between the two is more of an academic interest only.

The others that had collected four points and are just a step away from qualification and they are Iti Sharma (HP), Harshavardhini (AAI), Sanya Sehgal (Har), Archana Kamath (AAI), Maria Rony (Kerala), Anuska Dutta (RSPB), Mansi Dshpande (Mah), Priyadarshini Das (WB), Sreeja Akula (AAI), Selenadeepthi Selvakumar (TN), Moumita Datta (WB), Ritika Kundu (NB), Takeme Sarkar (RSPB), Sukanya Bose (RSPB), Priti Mokashi (Mah), Saswati Ghosh (MP), Manushree Patil (Mah) and Ashlesha Trehan (RSPB). All these players have a third-round match tomorrow before the knockout phase begins.

Local girl Saswati Ghosh, who is making her maiden appearance for MP, made an impressive start beating Rutuja Khopkar of Maharashtra 7-11, 11-4, 11-4, 13-11 but found a big hurdle in West Bengal’s Mrittika Halder which the former had to cross. And the MP girl did that with a hard-fought 3-2 (7-11, 11-5, 4-11, 11-5, 11-6) to post two crucial wins. She has a match against No. 1 player in her group 21, Rupsa Bhattacharya of Railways, who is lying behind, having lost her second match to West Bengal rival Mrittika 2-3.

Similarly, the fight for top spot in group 22 will be between Sukanya Bose of Railways and Priti Mokashi of Maharashtra as they have two wins each and their direct showdowntomorrow will decide the group leader. Priti had a tough time against Riya Dutta of West Bengal before subduing her 11-7, 11-9, 12-14, 17-15, the last two games went into several deuces.

Three AAI girls—Selenadeepthi, Sreeja and Archana—held on to their top group positions so far but tomorrow can be a different day for both Moumita Datta from West Bengal and Selenadeepthi in group 24. But for Akula, who scored 3-1, 3-0 triumphs over Tanaya Dutta and Sumana Saha in group 25, and Archana, who defeated Koumudi Patankar of Karnataka 3-0 and got a walkover from Sangita Mahadani of West Bengal, the passage seems easy now.  

But in the men’s singles, the group toppers are yet to play their second round matches for a clear picture to emerge in Stage 1. But indications are that there will hardly be any disappointment on this count as they are expected to go through, leaving the second spots to lesser players in their respective groups.

Meanwhile, the top eight ranked players—Suthirtha Mukherjee, who is sure to get the top seeding, Madhurika Patkar, Pooja Sahasrabuddhe, Mouma Das, Mousumi Paul, Shruti Amrute, Manika Batra and Krittwika Sinha Roy—have been given direct main draw entry will begin their campaign from tomorrow when the group qualifiers join them.

Even as the men and women players get a breather after two rounds, the Junior Boys will play a couple of rounds to wind up the day’s proceedings.

TTFI release

Ronit, Harshavardhini claim junior titles

Jamnagar, October 10, 2015: In what turned out to be a West Bengal Junior Boys final, Ronit Bhanja defeated state mate Jeet Chandra 4-0 to win his second title this season while it was Tamil Nadu’s R. Harshavardhini who won the Junior Girls crown in the ongoing JMC National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships, being held at the JMC Indoor Stadium, here today. Harshavardhini beat Telangana’s Sreeja Akula 4-0.

Incidentally, this was Ronit’s second successive title win, having won his first at Chennai, but for the Tamil Nadu girl it was her first, having missed it narrowly in the South Zone championships at Chennai.

No doubt, the results speak for the way the losing finalists’ meek surrender to the winners. In fact, Jeet Chandra, coming after a year’s ban, did everything right until the final where Ronit proved to be a hard nut to crack. However, Sreeja played the game well but was somehow unable to counter her superior opponent who, despite getting extended in the third game, sealed her Telangana rival’s fate. She first took the game 15-13 after four deuces and pulled the shutters down on Sreeja with an easy win in the next.   

Meanwhile, in morning upsets top men’s seed Harmeet Desai went down to Omkar Torgalkar. The qualifier from Maharashtra was trailing 0-2 but staged a fine comeback to upstage the PSPB paddler, who happens to be from Gujarat. To say that it was a surprise win for Torgalkar is to take the credit away from the Maharashtrian boy who played brilliantly to win 4-2.

But another Gujarat paddler, Devesh Karia kept his quarterfinal date intact beating AAI’s Sarthak Gandhi 4-1 while other seeded players like Sanil Shetty struggled to down PSPB teammate Lalrin Puia 4-2, G. Sathiyan overcame Birdie Boro 4-2, Sudhanshu Grover (4-3) was stretched the full distance by AAI’s Sabhay Virmani, Abhishek Yadav accounted for veteran Soumyadeep Roy 4-3 and No. 2 seed Anthony Amalraj scored a 4-0 win over another AAI opponent Vivek Bhargav. Nitin Thiruvengadam, who beat Delhi’s Utkarsh Gupta 4-0, Omkar Torgalkar and Devesh Karia were the three odd men out in the quarterfinals as the rest are from PSPB.

Continuing upset saga, Tamil Nadu’s Abhinaya Ramesh ousted top-seed Shruti Amrute of Maharashtra 4-2 in Junior Girls. Even Varuni Jaswal from Telangana struggled to overcome Delhi’s Harsha Kalra 4-3 even as Akua Sreeja and R. Harshavardini won easily to move into the semifinals.

In Junior Boys quarterfinals, to unseeded players Ashwin Subramanian from Maharashtra and Jeet Chandra of West Bengal moved into the quarters beating Goa’s Wesley Do Rosario 4-1 and Jeet blanked out second seed Siddhesh Pande 4-0. However, it was easy for top-seeded Ronit Bhanja but not for No. 3 Ananth Devarajan of Tamil Nadu, who had to snatch a 4-3 win over West Bengal’s Anirban Ghosh.

In Youth Boys and Youth Girls, almost all seeded players easily moved into the quarterfinals. However, there was one exception as Delhi’s Utkarsh Gupta bowed out in the pre-quarters to Ronit Bhanja 3-4 (2-11, 6-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-9, 4-11). The Delhi boy lifted his game up after 0-3 down only to lose steam in the decider which the West Bengal lad won with a lot to spare.

Reeth Rishya (PSPB), Priyanka Pareek (Raj), Sreeja Akula (Telg) and Manika Batra (PSPB) made it to the Youth Girls semifinals without any trouble. But Ayhika Mukerjee (AAI) must be ruing her loss to the Rajasthan girl, who won 11-8, 10-12, 13-11, 11-7, 3-11, 1-11, 11-5, after putting up a good fight.

In Youth Boys quarterfinals, both PSPB teammates Abhishek Yadav and Sudhanshu Grover lost to Birdie Boro, also of PSPB, and Ravindra Kotiyan of Maharashtra, respectively. Boro won 4-1 while Kotiyan 4-2 to enter the semifinals.

In other matches, Ronit Bhanja displayed his superb form yet again to beat AAI’s Vivek Bhargava 4-1 and Karnataka’s Shreyal Telang overcame a tough Abhinav Belwal from UP with a 4-3 verdict.

Results:

Junior Boys: Final: Ronit Bhanja (WB) bt Jeet Chandra (WB) 11-8, 11-6, 11-8, 11-6; Semifinals: Ronit Bhanja (WB) bt Ashwin Subramanian (Mah) 11-2, 11-4, 11-5, 11-7, Jeet Chandra (WB) bt Ananth Devarajan (TN) 8-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-3, 11-3, 11-6).

Junior Girls: Final: R. Harshavardhini (TN) bt Sreeja Akula (Telg) 11-9, 11-2, 15-13, 11-7; Semifinals: Sreeja Akula (AAI) bt Abinaya Ramesh 11-6, 11-9, 11-6, 11-8, R. Harshavardhini bt Varuni Jaswal (Telg) 12-10, 11-5, 11-9, 11-9.

TTFI Press release

Seeds wither in dry Gujarat; Devesh carries local hopes in men’s singles

Jamnagar, October 9 , 2015: As many as four seeded-players, three in the Junior Boys and one in the Junior Girls, fell by the wayside in the ongoing JMC National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships, being held at the JMC Indoor Stadium, here today.

The biggest of them all were No. 4 seeds Sarthak Seth from UP and Seleenadeepthi Selvakumar of Tamil Nadu, who bowed out to qualifiers Wesley Do Rosario of Goa and Prapti Sen of West Bengal, respectively. Selena lost in straight games of 8-11, 7-11, 7-11 in the first round itself while Sarthak made his exit in the second, after having received first-round byes. The Goan boy won 11-9, 11-8, 11-6.

Qualifier Ashwin Subramanian from Maharashtra benefited from state mate Shaurya Pednekar’s walkover while another qualifier Akash Nath from West Bengal defeated No. 8 Shreyas Kulkarni from Karnataka 13-11, 11-2, 11-4 to keep the matter simple and straight.

It was a coincident that all the three boys were from the top-half of the draw as all the seeded players in the bottom half moved into the pre-quarterfinals.

Though top-seed Ronit Bhanja from West Bengal struggled, he won against Maharashtra’s Jash Dalvi 14-12, 11-9, 2-11, 11-7. The Maharashtra lad played brilliantly to keep himself in the game but Ronit’s experience stood him in good stead.

But the best match was between two qualifiers Raegan Albuquerque of PSPBA and TN’s R. Sathyanarayanan which the latter won 14-12, 11-8, 7-11, 9-11, 11-7. The Academy boy, who never gives up even after being down in the dumps, showed exemplary courage to level the score only to go down in the decider.  

It must have come as a big shock to Selenadeepthi, who formed part of the top-half of the main draw in Junior Girls, because sub-junior Prapti Sen did not have to sweat it out much even in the cauldron-like atmosphere of Jamnagar.

But another Tamil Nadu girl and No. 2 seed, R. Harshavardhini survived a scare from North Bengal’s Puja Paul, who kept her rival on tenterhooks. The TN girl won the hard-fought battle 8-11, 11-7, 6-11, 11-8, 11-9, after her opponent saved a match-point at 10-8.

Both winners in Junior Boys and Junior Girls play their pre-quarterfinals round later tonight.

The women’s singles, which has entered the main draw stage, will see matches being played this evening. They will be followed by the men’s singles.

PSPB’s Manika Batra and Pooja Sahastrabudhe are seeded No. 1 and 2 in the women’s singles, the main draw of which is of 32 players. K. Shamini, Madhurika Patkar, Anindita Chakraborty, Mouma Das, Krittwika Sinha Roy and Nikhat Banu follow the top two in that order or seeding.

All top four seeds—Harmeet Desai, Anthony Amalraj, G. Sathiyan and Sanil Shankar Shetty—pack a real punch, representing the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board with Sudhanshu Grover, also from the PSPB, is seeded at No. 6. The fifth spot has gone to Gujarat’s Devesh Karia while the No. 6 and No. 7 slots have come the way of Anirban Ghosh (WB) and Nitin Thiruvengadam of Canara Bank. 

TTFI Press release