Jamnagar: Gujarat’s Manush Shah defeated PSPB Academy’s Jeho Hinakulhpuingheta 4-0 in the Sub-Junior Boys final to wrest the title in the JMC National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships here at the JMC Indoor Stadium today. The Sub-Junior Girls crown went to Maharashtra’s Manushree Patil, who beat teammate Swastika Gosh by a similar verdict.

But both the matches never measured up to the standards of finals as the two won with a lot to spare. No doubt, there were a few extended games in the two finals but the winners were never under any threat.

In contrast, the Sub-Junior Boys semifinals had some thrills as No 4 seed Manush Shah defeated top-seed and South Zone title-holder Anukram Jain 4-2 from PSPBA while Jeho Hinakulhpuingheta repeated a similar performance against Delhi’s Yashansh Malik. Both the matches almost went down to the wire and what was remarkable about Manush’s win was that he, despite trailing 0-2, staged a fine recovery to outsmart his rival. So dominant was the Gujarat boy that he not only took the next four games, but also won the fifth and sixth games with a lot to spare.

The Delhi boy never had an upper hand in spite of levelling the score at 2-2 to keep his interests alive. But once Jeho steadied himself taking the fifth game, it became easy for the PSPBA boy.

Maharashtra’s Swatika Ghosh accounted for top-seed Prapti Sen 4-2 and the former’s teammate Manushree Patil made it a straight games affair against another West Bengal girl, Shurubabati Moitra. Prapti was the title-holder when she beat Nikita Sarkar of North Bengal in the South Zone final at Chennai. But the win came after some struggle for the Maharashtra girl who leading 2-0, lost the next game very badly (1-11) that a tough match was on cards. But belying expectations, Swastika kept herself in the reckoning to pull the shutters down on her rival. For Manushree, it was a cakewalk against Shurubabati who just once managed to extend her in the third game.

First Cadet title wins

In the Cadet Boys final, Divyansh Srivastava ran over Tamil Nadu’s Vishwa Deenadayalan without a hiccup as he completed the task in a little over half an hour to win his maiden title. Vishwa, who played brilliantly in the semifinals, was found wanting in every department of the game. The UP boy won 4-0.

It was, more or less, the same case for Kavyashree from Tamil Nadu who won her first crown on the first apperance. The first-year Cadet girl downed Karnataka’s Anargya Manjunath 4-1 after leading 2-0. The sixth standard student from Tambaram’s MCC Campus School was too goo on the day and wore out Anargya. The latter, who managed to win the third game, was never comfortable against the topspin forehand play of Kavyashree, who is training under S. Mohan at Tambaram’s ENTTA Club, with guidance coming from Maharishi Vidhya Mandir TT Academy.

In the semifinals, it was easy for Vishwa against teammate Anuj but Divyanshi had to bring out his best to beat Delhi’s Payas Jain who made a nice comeback after losing the first two games. But in the decider, Divyanshi won it on extended point to sail through. As for the Cadet Girls, the duel between Karnaaka’s Anargya and Lakshita of Delhi was of the edge-of-the-seat kind. Pendulum swung from one extreme to another but the Karnataka girl won the decider after five deuces and dropping three match-points. In the other match, Kavyashree easily beat Suhana Saini of Haryana though the latter managed to take a game off her.

Cadet Boys: Final: Divyansh Srivastava (UP) bt Vishwa Deenadayalan (TN) 11-7, 11-5, 11-7, 12-10; Semifinals: Vishwa Deenadayalan (TN) bt Anuj Mahipal (TN) 11-5, 9-11, 13-11, 11-7, Divyanshi Srivastava (UP) bt Payas Jain (Del) 11-8, 12-10, 3-11, 11-13, 12-10.

Cadet Girls: Final: Kavyashree Baskar (TN) bt Anargya Manjunath (KNT) 11-5, 11-6, 11-9, 7-11, 11-7; Semifinals: Anargya Manjunath (KNT) bt Lakshita Narang (Del) 11-7, 5-11, 11-9, 9-11, 16-14, Kavyashree Baskar (TN) bt Suhana Saini (Har) 7-11, 11-2, 11-5, 11-8.


Sub-Junior Boys: Final: Manush Shah (Guj) bt Jeho Hinakulhpuingheta (PSPBA) 11-9, 11-9, 11-9, 12-10; Semifinals: Manush Shah (Guj) bt Anukram Jain (PSPBA) 9-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-6, 11-6, Jeho Hinakulhpuingheta (PSPBA) bt Yashansh Malik (Del) 11-7, 8-11, 13-1, 6-11, 11-8, 11-6.

Sub-Junior Girls: Final: Manushree Patil (Mah) bt Swastika Gosh (Mah) 11-6, 12-10, 11-8, 12-10; Semifinals: Manushree Patil (Mah) bt Shurubabati Moitra (WB) 11-9, 11-4, 12-10, 11-5, Swastika Ghosh (Mah) bt Prapti Sen (WB) 11-7, 13-11, 1-11, 11-5, 8-11, 11-6.