Visakhapatnam: The curtains came down on the six-day 11Even Sports National Ranking (South Zone) Table Tennis Championships when Shreyaans Goyal and Swastika Ghosh emerged as the Sub-Junior Boys and Girls champions, respectively, at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium here on Tuesday.
In what was the left-handers’ Boys final, Delhi’s Shreyaans defeated Chinmaya Somaiya of PSPBA 4-2 and in the Girls final Maharashtra’s Swastika Ghosh blanked out Delhi’s Vanshika Bhargava 4-0 for their maiden title victory.
The Cadet Boys title went the way of Preyesh Suresh Raj while it was Kavyashree Baskar who claimed her back-to-back Cadet Girls crown.
In a classy Boys final, two games marked the never-say-die abilities of the boys. Both attacked and varied their game plans as was visible from the word go. The fifth and sixth games took the cake and astonished every one as the first one went Chinmaya’s way but in the marathon sixth, which saw long rallies and several deuces and game points for Chinmaya, the Delhi boy outsmarted his rival on the sixth match point to take home the winner’s purse.
But it was a cakewalk for Swastika who hardly made a wrong move despite Vanshika extending her in two games. Without taking many risks, she covered herself well to beat Vanshika.
Earlier, top-seed and Rajkot title winner Payas Jain went down to state mate Shreyaans Goyal in straight games to avenge his semifinal defeat in the West Zone. It was sort of a comedown for Payas who had entered both the previous finals. In the other semifinal, Chinmaya Somaiya, gunning for his third title this season, defeated Deepit Patil of Maharashtra 4-1.
It was a pleasant surprise that Swastika Ghosh managed to enter the final in spite of being a good prospect. But she had to overcome a spirited Poymantee Baisya of West Bengal 4-2 unlike Vanshika Bhargava who had it easy against Kajol Ramjali of Andhra Pradesh to enter the final. Vanshika won 4-0.
The local girl did really well to enter her maiden semifinal. She had earlier sent No 3 seed Tanisi Kirtani of Goa 3-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-6, 15-13. What clinched it in AP’s girl’s favour was the decider in which she showed lot courage and responded very well to Tanisi.
Earlier, Tamil Nadu’s Nithyashree Mani put up yet another sterling show before bowing out in the quarterfinals for the second time in succession. The girl from Chennai Achievers Club, if groomed properly, should go places.
YET ANOTHER TN SWEEP
In the Cadet events, it was a repeat of titles for the Tamil Nadu’s Preyesh Suresh Raj and Kavyashree Baskar. Southpaw Preyesh, for whom it was the fourth title in a row, beat Tarun in a see-saw battle 4-3. Tarun, also a lefty, had his moments in the match but Preyesh, who has made it a habit of sorts, emerged stronger when the situation demanded.
Tarun, coming as he does from a lower-middle class, has shown lot of promise in the last two years since he join Maharishi Vidhya Mandir at Chetpet. A crafty and intelligent player, he pushed Preyesh to the brink but the latter did well to come back in the face of some unforced errors from Tarun.
Kavyashree, on the other hand, repeated precisely what she did in their previous meeting, winning the final 4-2. There was hardly a change in her pattern—she took the first three games rather fluently but got bogged down in the next two to lose her grip before staging her by now trademark recovery.
Suhana won the final against Kavyashree at Indore and had accounted for her in the semifinals at Chandigarh where she beat Ambika Gupta of UP for the crown. But subsequent to that, Kavyashree has taken her revenge twice over, at Rajkot and as well here. Incidentally, Kavyashree who practices at ENTTA, Thambaram, is under the technical guidance of Ravi Venkatesh who is also the coach of Tarun.
Results:
Sub-Junior Boys: Final: Shreyaans Goyal (Del) bt Chinaya Somaiya (PSPBA) 11-8, 5-11, 11-6, 12-10, 12-14, 20-18; Semifinals: Shreyaans Goyal bt Payas Jain (Del) 11-9, 11-7, 11-8, 13-1, Chinaya Somaiya bt Deepit Patil (Mah) 6-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-3, 11-7.
Sub-Junior Girls: Final: Swastika Ghosh (Mah) bt Vanshika Bhargava (Delh) 12-10, 11-6, 13-11, 11-9; Semifinals: Swastika Ghosh bt Poymantee Baisya (WB) 8-11, 11-8, 13-11, 11-7, 5-11, 12-10, Vanshika Bhargava bt Kajol Ramjali (AP) 11-5, 11-4, 11-3, 15-13.
Cadet Boys: Final: Preyesh Suresh (TN) bt Tarun Shanmugham (TN) 11-3, 10-12, 1-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-8; Semifinals: Preyesh Suresh Raj bt Divyansh Srivastava (UP) 16-14, 11-5, 11-13, 12-10, Tarun Shanmugham bt Akash J. Mane (KNT) 11-9, 11-7, 11-5.
Cadet Girls: Final: Kavyashree (TN) bt Suhana Saini (Har) 11-8,12-10, 12-10, 7-11, 5-11, 11-7; Semifinals: Suhana Saini bt Prithioki Chakraborti (WB) 11-6, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8, Kavyashree Baskar bt Lakshita Narang (Del) 11-6, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8.
