Tamil Nadu’s G. Sathiyan and West Bengal’s Mouma Das, the men’s and women’s top seeds, sailed into the singles pre-quarterfinals of the 35th National Games table tennis here on Tuesday.
Both Sathiyan, who defeated Delhi’s Sameer Sahni, and National women’s champion Mouma, who crushed Delhi’s Nikita Rautela, came up with 4-0 wins.
Gold for TN men Earlier, former National champion A. Amalraj kept his cool under pressure and helped Tamil Nadu win the men’s team gold on Monday night.
Tamil Nadu, which lost both its opening singles, bounced back dramatically to level the scores through Sushmit Sriram and G. Sathiyan and with the match going all the way to the last game of the decider, the pressure was really shooting up.
But while the second-seeded lefthander Devesh Karia crumbled under pressure, going into errors at crucial stages, Amalraj appeared mentally stronger and pulled off a sensational victory.
The results (team championship):
Men’s final: TN bt Gujarat 3-2 (G. Sathiyan lost to Devesh Karia 10-12, 11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 11-13; A. Amalraj lost to Harmeet Desai 13-11, 8-11, 11-13, 10-12; Sushmit Sriram bt Jignesh Jaiswal 11-7, 11-7, 11-4; Sathiyan bt Harmeet Desai 11-9, 11-13, 9-11, 13-11, 11-3; Amalraj bt Devesh Karia 11-3, 11-9, 9-11, 0-11, 11-6).
