Jaipur: G. Sathiyan stopped giant killer Manav Thakkar on his tracks to beat him 4-to regain the men’s singles title in the AAI 46th All India Inter-Institutional Championships at the SMS Indoor Stadium here today. For Sathiyan, it was the second institutional title, the first of which came at New Delhi in 2012.
Earlier, a new women’s singles champion emerged on the horizon with West Bengal’s Suthirtha Mukherjee defeating fifth-seeded Mouma Das 4-2. The winners collected the prize purse of Rs. 75,000 and Rs. 58,000, respectively.
Against Sathiyan’s calibre of play, it was always going to be difficult for Manav as was evident in the final. Sathiyan, showing variety in all aspects of the game, was way ahead of the inexperienced Manav at this level. Though the boy from Surat managed to take a game off his rival, Sathiyan was full of strokes which bemused Manav who had no answer to Sathiyan’s guile.
Suthirtha, returning to active table tennis after a two-year ban, must have been waiting for her moment of triumph. Two years of oblivion had not only reignited the fire in the belly but has also brought her back into the mainstream with a bang. Despite being out of game, she continued with her practice and it paid rich dividends when he made Olympic-bound Mouma earn every point. With good counters and those surprise backhands she tamed the six-time national champion, particularly in the third game. Though Mouma did come back to level at 2-2, Suthirtha went on a cruise mode to complete the task.
In the semifinals, Manav Thakkar sliced top-seeded Anthony Amalraj to add another name to his list of seeds that became his victims. The rampaging PSPB youngster began on a healthy note to go 3-1 up before letting the reigning national champion managed to pull back one, winning the fifth game on extended points. But Manav, with nice rhythm and flowing strokes, tamed Amalraj 4-2 before it was too late. The second semifinal saw G. Sathiyan just dismissing former national champion Sanil Shetty’s presence with a 4-1 verdict.
On the distaff side, Mouma defeated North Zone winner Madhurika Patkar 4-2 while young Suthirtha Mukherjee took less than 35 minutes to pack off PSPB’s Mousumi Paul 4-0. The West Bengal, who is appearing in her first final, was in no mood to change her script and went about in a clinical fashion to demolish Mousumi, who had felled second seeded Manika Batra yesterday.
Mouma, still to find her rhythm in the championships, brought back all her experience to the table to outwit Madhurika, who lacked in consistency.
The PSPB pairs of Sudhanshu Grover and Abhishek Yadav claimed the men’s doubles title while the women’s doubles crown went to the way of Mouma Das and K. Shamini, another PSPB pair.
This only shows yet again how dominant the Petroleum players have been over the years with only a token resistance coming from certain quarters and that too sporadically!
Results:
Men’s Singles Final: G. Sathiyan (PSPB) beat Manav Thakkar (PSPB) 11-6, 8-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-2; Semifinals: Manav Thakkar beat Anthony Amalraj (PSPB) 11-4, 5-11, 9-11, 11-4, 12-10, 11-9, G. Sathiyan beat Sanil Shetty (PSPB) 8-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-6, 11-5.
