Young Manav Thakkar proved that he was exceptionally talented when he defeated his Petroleum teammate Harmeet Desai 4-1 to win the men singles title in the UTT National-ranking (East Zone) table tennis championship here on Friday.
In the women’s section, West Bengal’s Krittwika Sinha Roy upset top seed Sutirtha Mukherjee of Haryana 4-1 to clinch her maiden women’s singles crown.
On his way to winning his first seniors’ crown of the season, Manav gained a 2-0 lead before dropping the next to Harmeet (2-1). The latter appeared poised for a comeback leading 6-0 in the fourth game, but Manav refused to give up and narrowed the gap to 5-6.
With Harmeet a point away (10-9) from levelling the game score, Manav won a nice rally to force a deuce and then won the next two points to go up 3-1.
In the fifth game Harmeet, the South Zone winner, appeared to have mentally given up as he made repeated errors to allow Manav take the title with relative ease.
Earlier in the day, Krittwika, who finished runner-up in the Nationals at Cuttack this January, played brilliantly. Sutirtha produced a scratchy performance to go down (4-1) without a fight.
The results:
Men: Final: Manav Thakkar (PSPB) bt Harmeet Desai (PSPB) 12-10, 11-4, 9-11, 12-10, 11-7. Semifinals: Manav bt Soumyajit Ghosh (Har) 11-5, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 7-11, 11-4, Harmeet bt Sushmit Sriram (TN) 5-11, 9-11, 11-2, 11-5, 7-11, 11-7, 11-5.
Women: Final: Krittwika Sinha Roy (WB) bt Sutirtha Mukherkee (Har) 11-7, 11-5, 5-11, 11-6, 11-8. Semifinals: Sutirtha bt Ayhika Mukherjee (RBI) 11-6, 8-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-3, Krittiwika bt Prapti Sen (WB) 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 14-12, 11-13, 11-8.
Mixed doubles (final): Manav Thakkar & Archana Kamath (PSPB) bt Akash Pal & Poymantee Baishya (WB) 6-11, 11-7, 11-7, 12-10 .
