New Delhi: Arham Sogani played the match of his life to beat Adit Chopra and propel him to the next round of Cadet Boys in the Ping Pong Delhi State Table Tennis Ranking Tournament, which began at the Thyagraj Stadium here on Tuesday.
This tournament attaches importance for the simple reason that it will be the last ranking event before the DSTTA conducts its first 11Even Sports Inter-School Table Tennis Tournament, which begins at the same venue from August 29 to 31, in which over 80-odd Delhi Schools will participate.
There were few others wins too in the Cadet Boys section that were equally attractive and stretched but Sogani’s 40-minute play took the breath of the rest as it turned out to be not only intense but interesting.
The tournament, organized by the Central District TTA, attracted nearly 600 entries in 13 categories and also in para (standing and sitting) section.
Sogani began badly as he trailed 0-2 to Chopra only to get his rhythm back in the third as he levelled the score 2-2 to take the issue to the decider. It was in the decider that one saw Sogani’s steely nerves as he held on to two deuces before winning 12-10 to beat his rival 11-13, 6-11, 11-4, 11-5, 12-10.
In other matches, Ashish Jain of Apeejay School Pitampura downed Nischal Deep 11-4, 11-5, 11-3 to move into the fourth round, which is the pre-quarterfinals. Along with them those who moved in included Pratyaksh Sharama who beat Mayank Gupta 3-1, Viral Goel, who downed Vansh Tanwar 11-3, 11-8, 6-11, 11-8 in the Cadet Boys Section.
In Sub-Junior Boys, Pratham Uppal sruggled before overcoming Aditya Jain 3-1, Vedant Jhawar beat Vansh Girdhar, also by the same margin, and Arnav Goel who defeated Samarth Singh 11-8, 11-8, 6-11, 11-8 in a tough third-round battle.
The Junior Boys category saw some tough matches with Rahul Rajan winning over Pratham Uppar 11-13, 7-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-6. The match between Hardik Khurana and Jagrit Ahuja was equally interesting as the scoreline suggests. They stretched each other in the first game itself which Khurana won 17-15. Not to be deterred Ahuja returned the compliment by taking the next at 14-12. But in the end, it was Khurana who won 17-15, 12-14, 11-3, 11-5 to move into the pre-quarterfinals.
The girls event in all categories begin tomorrow with the pre-quarters of Cadet and Junior Boys.
