Indore: Payas Jain of Delhi and Prag Chitale of Maharashtra emerged champions in the Sub-Junior Boys and Sub-Junior Girls Manav in the 11Even Sports National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships at Abhay Prashad Indoor Stadium here on Saturday.
Payas, who won his second national ranking title here after his Rajkot outing last year in West Zone, played truly well despite the defensive Jeho put him in all sorts of trouble. The most energy-sapping game came in the third which Payas on 23-21 and from there it was Payas all the way as he won 4-1. The Sub-Juniior Girls title went to Diya Chitale who beat Munmun Kundu 4-1.
Diya Chitale, with loads of experience and talent, pooh-poohed the challenge from Munmun Kundu of West Bengal in the Sub-Junior Girls final. The West Bengal began well, taking the first game rather easily, but the little girl from Maharashtra was a hard nut to crack as she nicely launched herself and hit the groove to level. After that it was Diya all the way as her West Bengal opponent was rendered absolutely helpless. She did try in the fifth game but Diya won it with minimal points and minimum effort to wear the crown.
PREYESH, SUHANA AGAIN
Preyesh Raj Suresh yet again began his season on a winning note beating Goa’s Shantesh Mapsekar 4-0 in Cadet Boys final while it was Suhana Saini of Haryana who won the crown .in Cadet Girls.
Preyesh, who had a very successful season last with five zonal titles to his credit, faltered in the nationals at Siliguri and exited at the semifinal stage. Today, he had put that loss very much behind and began well. The Goan boy was no match to this Tamil Nadu left-hander who showed immense patience and cleverness to roll over Shantesh in quite time.
For Suhana, who won her maiden Cadet national singles title last year at Siliguri, it was another day at office. Her Mahrashtra rival Pritha played brilliantly in the semifinal but seemed to have no clue to the counters from Suhana who really controlled the final nicely. Suhana, after winning the second game 12-10 to level score, grew in confidence as she took 2-1 lead before Pritha pulled one back as she kept coming at Suhana every time the latter seemed to gain ascendency. But in the end the Haryana girl prevailed, winning the decider as she stopped Pritha way short.
50-50 AFFAIRS
Defensive Jeho of PSPBA took some time to warm up before subduing Maharashtra’s Dev Shroff 4-1 in the first semifinal while Delhi’s Payas Jain was somewhat held back by another PSPBA boy, Alberto Lrruata. But in the end it was Payas who clinched it in the sixth game, after being 7-4 up and 8-9 at one point. Payas’ patience and some blistering strokes helped him upset his opponent who could not level the score to get another lease of life as the Delhi boy won an extended game. Earlier, after losing the first game, Jeho struck a nice rhythm to outwit the left-handed opponent who could not cope with the slow pace of returns by Jeho.
If one of the Sub-Junior Girls semifinals saw some good fight brewing the other one turned out to be a one-sided affair. West Bengal’s Munmun Kundu struggled past Mihika Rohira of Maharashtra 4-2 while Diya Chitale, despite a good attacking game by her opponent, beat Trisha Gogoi of Assam 4-0.
In the Cadet section, Preyesh Raj went about his job more clinically to beat Suhaan Gulati of Punjab 3-0 even as Shantesh Mapsekar of Goa found Arnav Aggarwal of Chandigarh somewhat difficult to handle. However, the Goan boy won 3-2 in an interesting battle. So intense also was the match between Nehal Venkatasamy of Tamil Nadu and Pritha Vartikar of Maharashtra in Cadet Girls which the latter won 3-2 when the former took the issue to the decider. On the other hand, Haryana’s Suhana Saini made it a simple affair against Arya Songadkar of Maharashtra, winning the semifinal 3-0.
Results:
Sub-junior Boys: Payas Jain (DEL) bt Jeho.H (PSPBA) 8-11, 11-7, 23-21, 11-9, 11-8; Semi-finals: Payas Jain (DEL) bt Alberto Lrruata (PSPB) 11-2, 11-3, 8-11, 9-11, 12-10; H. Jeho (PSPB) bt Dev Shroff (MAH) 1-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-8, 11-9.
Sub-junior Girls: Final: Diya Chitale (MAH) bt Munmun Kundu (WB) 6-11, 11-8, 11-2, 11-4, 11-9; Semi-finals: Munmun Kundu (WB) bt Mihika Rohira (MAH) 12-14, 11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-6; Diya Chitale (MAH) bt Trisha Gogoi (A SM) 11-4, 11-8, 11-4, 11-9.
Cadet Boys: Final: Preyesh Raj (TN) bt Shantesh Mapsekar (Goa) 11-9, 11-9, 11-9, 11-7; Semi-finals: Preyesh Raj (TN) bt Suhaan Gulati (PUN) 11-8, 11-8, 11-7; Shantesh Mapsekar (Goa) bt Arnav Aggarwal (CHD) 11-9, 2-11, 11-9, 10-12, 11-9.
Cadet Girls: Final: Suhana Saini (HAR) bt Pritha Vartikar (MAH) 9-11, 12-10, 11-8, 6-11, 11-5, 6-11, 11-6; Semi-finals: Suhana Saini (HAR) bt Arya Songadkar (MAH) 12-10, 11-9, 16-14; Pritha Vartikar (MAH) bt Nehal Venkatasamy (TN) 11-2, 11-6, 3-11, 7-11, 12-10
