Suhana Saini, Preyesh Raj Suresh walk away with table tennis titles

Mohali, October 26

Preyesh Raj Suresh of Tamil Nadu returned to his winning ways, claiming the boys’ Youth U-17 title and eccentric Suhana Saini lifted the girls’ youth U-17 crown in the UTT National Ranking North Zone Table Tennis Championships at the Sports Complex in Sector 78 here.

The Tamil Nadu boy, who lost his touch in between, struck form against unseeded Shankhadip Das to win the final (4-0). Meanwhile, Das, who played superbly to reach the final, found it hard right from the word go. He put up some resistance in the second and third games, but not enough to stop the Tamil Nadu left-hander, who served and finished points with precision.

Suresh logged (11-6, 11-8, 11-8 and 11-5) win over Das to lift the title. Suhana, who claimed her maiden Under-19 title last week, brought some calmness to her match against Tamil Nadu’s Kavyashree Baskar.

Despite Kavyashree taking the lead, the Haryana paddler came back strongly to level. The Tamil Nadu eve again seized the opportunity to go (2-1) up, but Suhana, by now used to fight backs, finished the next three games to add silverware. Suhana finally defeated Kavyashree (6-11, 11-9, 10-12, 11-9, 11-9 and 12-10). — TNS