Sayani, Emon clinch titles on Day 2

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, July 6

Sayani Panda dismissed Nandini Saha 4-0 in an all-West Bengal final to clinch the cadet girls’ title on the second day of the National Ranking Table Tennis Championships (North Zone) at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium here on Friday.

The budding Kolkata paddler was ruthless and punished her opponent whenever she chose to push her returns deep. Playing close to the table, Sayani kept her state mate guessing all the time to pick points at will and sealed the match 11-4 11-9 11-6 11-5.

The only time when the 11-year-old was troubled during the day was in the quarterfinals, where she dropped a game against Maharashtra’s Radhika Sakpal.    “The quarterfinal against Radhika was the toughest,” Sayani said after her title win. It was Sayani’s first win in the Nationals and her coach Abhishek Mukherjee credited the success to her dedication and hard work. “She is very dedicated to the sport. She came to our academy four years ago and has since not missed a single practice session,” he said.  

Emon races to title

Meanwhile, in the cadet boys’ final, it was again the West Bengal duo that battled for the trophy. Top seed Oishik Ghosh and Emon Adhikary looked in great touch throughout the day and had little trouble en route the final. However, it was second seed Adhikary who held his composure to seal the title with a facile 11-9 12-10 11-5 13-11 win in the final.

Victorious Vishwa

Later in the day, Vishwa Deenadayalan of Tamil Nadu registered a hard-fought 11-2 12-10 9-11 8-11 11-9 11-8 win over Delhi’s Aadarsh Chetri to win the boys’ sub-junior title. In the semifinals, Vishwa surprised top seed Payas Jain 11-9 11-6 14-12 7-11 10-12 11-6, while Chetri rallied from a game down to beat Tamil Nadu’s Preyesh Suresh Raj 5-11 11-8 9-11 11-3 11-7 11-7.

The girls’ sub-junior title went to Karnatak’s Anargaya Manjunath after she overcame Kavyashree Baskar of Tamil Nadu 11-8 8-11 11-3 11-13 2-11 11-8 12-10 in the final.

Poor show

Top seed Suhana Saini of Haryana, who had got a direct entry into the main draw, failed to find her feet against Yashswini Ghorpade and went down 13-11 14-16 11-4 2-11 9-11 in the quarterfinals. Chandigarh’s Jashan Antal and Arnav Agarwal also failed to impress on the second day as they crashed out after losing their respective opening matches in the main draw.   Antal succumbed to Goa’s Nagesh Verenker 9-11 2-11 11-9 6-11, while Agarwal bowed to UP’s Akshat 5-11 10-12 4-11.