Abhishek Yadav and T. Reeth Rishya, the Indian junior boys' and girls' National champions, proved their merit picking up double crowns in the South Asian junior table tennis championship on Tuesday.
Abhishek and Reeth were the pick of the performers, as the Indian boys and girls dominated the individual events, sweeping away all the titles here at the Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Complex. India, which had dominated team events on Monday winning four golds, thus completed a haul of all the 10 titles that were decided in the tournament.
The individual finals set a trend in the boys' and girls' junior title rounds, where the triumphant doubles partners played against each other to decide the singles crowns. But the national ranking was not favoured in the boys' singles final, where the current No. 2 Abhishek beat No. 1 Sudhanshu Grover, to claim the title. Abhishek had earlier partnered Sudhanshu to win the doubles title.
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The girls' title followed the order, where the current topper Reeth Rishya ended the challenge of fourth-ranked Mallika Bhandarkar.
The two had previously teamed up to win the doubles title, beating Ruvini Kannangara and Chandima Vidange Maramba of Sri Lanka.
The Indian pre-eminence was completed with Karnam Spoorthy and Utkarsh Gupta, winning the girls' and boys' cadet singles titles.
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Keeping the favourable head-to-head statistic intact, southpaw Abhishek prevailed over his Petroleum Academy colleague Sudhanshu Grover 4-2, which was his fifth win in eight meetings. Abhishek combined control and aggression and made the perfect comeback, neutralising the early advantage gained by Shudhanshu, who led 2-1 at one stage.
Reeth Rishya rode on the fine form that saw her claiming the National and two zonal titles last season, to end the challenge of Indian teammate Mallika Bhandarkar 4-3 in one of the most closely contested finals of the day. In cadet boys', Utkarsh Gupta won in straight games against Birdie Boro while Karnam Spoorthy emerged triumphant against Sutirtha Mukherjee in a gruelling final stretched till the decider.
The results:
Boys:Junior (singles): Final: Abhishek Yadav (Ind) bt Sudhanshu Grover (Ind) 10-12, 11-7, 9-11, 11-4, 11-4, 11-7. Semifinals: Sudhanshu bt Salman Virk (Pak) 11-6, 5-11, 11-5, 12-14, 11-6, 11-6; Abhishek bt Supun Tharuka Sirisena (Sri) 11-5, 9-11, 11-3, 11-2, 9-11, 11-7.
Doubles: Final: Sudhanshu & Abhishek bt Mani Lama & Anish Shrestha (Nep) 11-8, 11-8, 11-3.
Cadet: Final: Utkarsh Gupta (Ind) bt Birdie Boro (Ind) 11-7, 11-9, 11-6. Semifinals: Utkarsh bt Imesh Udaya Ranasingha (Sri) 11-8, 11-6, 7-11, 11-7; Birdie bt Prasad Jayasanka De Silva (Sri) 11-7, 11-9, 11-6.
Girls: Junior (singles): Final: T. Reeth Rishya (Ind) bt Mallika Bhandarkar (Ind) 10-12, 11-7, 11-5, 6-11, 11-7, 11-13, 11-4. Semifinals: Reeth bt Ruvini Kannangara (Sri) 11-2, 3-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-6; Mallika bt Chandima Vidange Maramba (Sri) 11-7, 11-3, 11-4, 11-9.
Doubles: Final: Reeth & Mallika bt Ruvini & Chandima 14-12, 11-5, 11-6.
Cadet: Karnam Spoorthy (Ind) bt Sutirtha Mukherjee (Ind) 3-11, 11-7, 11-13, 11-7, 13-11. Semifinals: Spoorthy bt Muthuma Thuppahi Salpahdoru (Sri) 13-11, 11-9, 11-8; Sutirtha bt Imesha Pavani Sirisena (Sri) 11-7, 11-2, 11-3.