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Sangeetha-Aparna duo in final

By Our Sports Reporter

CHENNAI DEC. 27. S. Sangeetha and M. Aparna, the lethal left-right pair, which only the other day played a crucial role in Tamil Nadu regaining gold in the team event, combined effectively on Friday to put it across the Bengal duo of Mun Mun Basak and Runa Roy 5-11, 11-4, 14-12, 7-11, 11-5 in the doubles semifinals of the BSNL National junior and inter-state table tennis championship at the Nehru Indoor Stadium.

Sangeetha-Aparna will now have to contend with another Bengal pair of Mousami Paul and Pallavi Kundu, which had a relatively easy 7-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-6 win over Madhurika Patkar and Mansi Bhagwat of Maharashtra `A'.

Egged on by coaches M.S. Ashok Kumar and V. Vasu, and some fellow players, Tamil Nadu moved ahead, and for sure the pair was never short on support and motivation. The host used that to good effect to come back after losing the first game and go up 2-1. However, Bengal, with the trademark forehand smashes of Mun Mun Basak being bang on target, maintained a healthy lead in the fourth - 6-2, 10-6 - before levelling the scores 2-2.

Sangeetha and Aparna maintaining a winning lead in the deciding match to go ahead 10-4, and soon wrapped up the contest when Roy's backhand found the net.

In the boys doubles semifinal, the top doubles pair of Arunava Ganguly and Sameer Prabhu of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board Academy posted a fluent 11-5, 11-5, 11-9 win over Ashish Duklan and Nishank Bajaj of Delhi.

For PSPBA, Sameer played the leading role, while Arunava preferred the supporting role. Attacking and defending with panache, the PSPBA boys showed excellent athleticism and court coverage to post a facile victory.

Howerver, there was a setback for PSPBA boys in another semifinal when Amal Raj and Zubin Kumar lost to Harshit Chand and Ansul Garg of Uttar Pradesh 8-11, 11-2, 11-7, 1-11, 9-11.

On Friday, 171 qualifying matches in boys' and 141 in girls' section were gone through.

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