Top seed Utkarsh Gupta justified his seeding but had to overcome a tough customer in Anirban Ghosh of West Bengal for his maiden title in the Servo National Ranking South Zone table tennis championship at the Sree Kanteerav Indoor stadium here on Friday.
Utkarsh put it across the seventh seeded Anirban at 11-8, 4-11, 4-11, 11-8, 12-10. The US Open and South Asian champion this year, the 13-year-old Utkarsh was extravagant with his top spin forehand.
This weapon won him maximum points as the little made Anirban had to stretch and hop at times to reach the steep smashes.
After trading two games each and trailing 4-8 and 6-9 in the decider Anirban thanks to Utkarsh's largesse crawled back into the game.
With a lucky net chord point he levelled at 9-all and went 10-9 up. But he erred badly with his backhand and lost the match and title.
Tamil Nadu's Reeth Rishya toppled top seeded Mallika Bhandarkar of Maharashtra in the junior girls' singles quarterfinals with a straight games verdict.
The results: Boys: Sub-junior: Final: Utkarsh Gupta bt Anirban Ghosh 11-8, 4-11, 4-11, 11-8, 12-10. Semifinals: Utkarsh bt Subhendu Shaw 11-7, 3-11, 11-9, 11-9; Anirban bt Lalrin Puia 11-8, 11-6, 13-11.
Quarterfinals: Utkarsh bt Berdi Boro 11-7, 5-11, 11-7, 11-7; Subhendu bt Soumyadri Bhattacharya 11-6, 11-9, 11-5; Lalrin bt Ravindra Kotiyan 11-8, 8-11, 11-7, 11-1; Anirban bt Raja Kundu (PSPBA) 11-9, 14-12, 6-11, 11-13, 11-7.
Pre-quarterfinals: Utkarsh bt Rohit Binu Mathew 11-13, 13-11, 11-9, 11-8; Berdi bt Arjun Ghosh 11-8, 11-7, 11-3; Soumyadri bt Arvindh 15-13, 11-9, 9-11, 13-11; Subhendu bt Sayan Das 11-8, 9-11, 11-5, 11-3; Lalrin bt Anirudh 11-9, 11-8, 11-6; Ravindra bt Lalhun Lua 11-4, 10-12, 11-9, 11-9; Anirban bt Abhinay 14-12, 3-11, 11-9, 10-12, 11-4; Raja bt Chirag Kapoor 11-5, 11-7, 10-12, 12-10.
Junior:Quarterfinals: Abhishek Yadav bt Arnab Adhikari 11-9, 1-11, 11-8, 13-11, 2-11, 4-11, 11-6; Vivek Bhargava bt Charan 8-11, 13-11, 12-10, 11-8, 4-11, 11-4; Rajib Sarkar bt Utkarsh 11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 6-11, 9-11, 11-3; Sabhay Virmani bt Kishore Kumar 11-9, 11-9, 11-8, 11-7.
Pre-quarterfinals: Abhishek bt Anish 11-3, 11-7, 11-3; Arnab bt Arjun Kohli 9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-4; Charan bt Shubhankar Renavikar 11-7, 7-11, 9-11, 11-6, 16-14; Vivek bt Sandipan Dey 12-10, 11-4, 11-7; Rajib bt Sudhanshu Grover 11-9, 5-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-9; Utkarsh bt Chandrasekhar Gole 7-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-8; Sabhay bt Surojit Das 10-12, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7; Kishore Kumar bt Bhuvaraghan 11-6, 11-7, 11-8.
Youth: Pre-quarterfinals: Sushmit Sriram bt Soumyajit Ghosh 11-5, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-5; Sarthak Gandhi bt Mohit Verma 11-6, 6-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-9, 7-11, 11-7; Satiswaran bt Sanmay Paranjpe 11-6, 11-4, 11-6, 11-8; Harmeet Desai bt Prabhakaran 11-2, 14-16, 11-5, 11-4, 11-8; Venkataramanan bt Karthik 11-8, 11-9, 12-10, 11-13, 6-11, 14-12; Sougota Sarkar bt Susovan Das 11-8, 7-11, 11-5, 12-14, 12-10, 11-7; Sourav Saha bt Nithin 9-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-1, 12-10, 11-2; Sathiyan bt Martand Biniwale 11-8, 11-5, 5-11, 11-3, 9-11, 11-9.
Girls: Junior: Quarterfinals: Reeth Rishya bt Mallika Bhandarkar 11-9, 11-7, 11-8, 12-10; Cameli Sil bt Krithicka 3-11, 11-2, 12-10, 7-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-9; Narasimhapriya bt Senora D'Souza 6-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-8, 6-11, 13-11; Manika Batra bt Anushree Hazra 5-11, 11-7, 11-9, 5-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-8.
