Table tennis: Shruti Amrute wins maiden title

Top seed Shruti Amrute of Maharashtra won her maiden title after ending local girl Maria Rony’s dream run in the junior girl’s singles final of the 76th National junior and youth table tennis championship here on Friday.

Shruti bounced back after losing the first set to tame Maria 7-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-4.

Maria had problems dealing with Shruti’s serves and looked tired after her tough semifinal match against Riti Shankar of Delhi.

Maria raised hopes of a fightback in the third set as she managed to stay abreast of the top seed till 9-all. But Maria once again wilted and committed errors that enabled Shurti to close out the set at 11-9. Maria put up a token resistance in the fourth set.

The results: Junior Girls: Final: Shruti Amrute (Mah) bt Maria Rony (Ker) 7-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-4. Semifinals: Maria bt Riti Shankar (Del) 11-4, 11-7, 11-6, 11-7; Shruti bt Sreeja Akule (Tel) 11-6, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-6.

Team: Youth Boys: Final: Maharashtra ‘A’ bt Delhi 3-0 (Sanish Ambekar bt Himashu Jindal 11-7, 11-6, 7-11, 11-8; Ravindra Kotiyan bt Shivam Shrivastava 2-11, 11-9, 11-6, 9-11, 11-5; Siddhesh Pande bt Peeyush Prasad 13-11, 11-9, 11-5).

Youth Girls: Final: PSPB bt Maharashtra ‘A’ 3-2 (Manika Batra bt Mallika Bhandarkar 7-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-7; Reeth Rishya lost to Charvi Kawle 11-6, 8-11, 4-11, 4-11, Archana Kamath bt Ashlesha Trehan 11-7, 11-6, 11-4; Manika Batra lost to Charvi Kawle 8-11, 11-13, 11-2, 8-11; Reeth Rishya bt Mallika Bhandarkar 14-12, 11-6, 11-4).