The all-conquering Petroleum moved a step closer to completing a sweep of team titles in the AAI inter-institutional table tennis championship at the Thyagraj Indoor Stadium here on Monday.
Having claimed the youth boys’ and youth girls’ team titles following a five-team league, Petroleum reached the men’s and women’s finals in a dominating manner.
Petroleum will take on arch-rival Railways in the men's final and Airports Authority of India (AAI) in the women's title-clash on Tuesday.
In the semifinals, the AAI women trounced Railways 3-0.
Thereafter, AAI almost ended Railways’ run in the men’s semifinals, too, before Anirban Nandi won his second match of the tie to complete a 3-2 defeat of the host.
The finalists in all sections qualified for their respective National championships. While Petroleum booked its berths in all sections, Air India made it by finishing as the second team in both youth categories.
The results (team championship): Men: Semifinals: Petroleum beat Central Revenue 3-0 (Soumyajit Ghosh bt Devesh Karia 10-12, 11-7, 11-2, 11-8; G. Sathiyan bt Sayan Paul Roy 11-2, 11-8, 11-9; Sanil Shetty bt Eric Nestor 11-9, 11-4, 11-6); Railways beat Airports Authority of India 3-2 (Anirban Nandi bt Nitin Thiruvengadam 15-13, 5-11, 11-5, 11-6; Prabhakaran E. bt Sushmit Sriram 11-7, 5-11, 11-7, 11-3; Noel Pinto lost to Sabhay Virmani 6-11, 11-1, 11-8, 5-11, 8-11; Prabhakaran E. lost to Nitin Thiruvengadam 13-11, 7-11, 11-8, 5-11, 8-11; Anirban Nandi bt Sushmit Sriram 11-9, 11-8, 11-5).
Quarterfinals: Petroleum bt ESIC 3-0; Central Revenue bt Air India 3-1; AAI bt FCI 3-1; Railways bt LIC 3-1.
Women: Semifinals: Petroleum beat Air India 3-0 (Madhurika Patkar bt Devika Bhide 11-8, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6; Ankita Das bt Mallika Bhandarkar 11-4, 11-6, 11-4; Pooja Sahasrabudhe bt Vedika Garg 11-4, 11-7, 11-6); Airports Authority of India beat Railways 3-0 (Nikhat Bhanu bt Anindita Chakraborty 11-7, 15-17, 11-8, 11-9; Kritwikka Sinha Roy bt Takeme Sarkar 11-7, 11-5, 11-5; Amrutha Pushpak bt Rupsa Bhattcharya 11-8, 11-7, 11-5).
Quarterfinals: Petroleum bt Dena Bank 3-0; Air India bt Indian Audit 3-1; Railways bt LIC 3-2; AAI bt Central Revenue 3-0.
