G. Sathiyan, the country’s No. 2 star in the world, had not played any domestic event this season. Obviously, one would have thought it would be a difficult journey for the PSPB product. But, the 25-year-old did one better to emerge the men’s champion of the AAI 48th all-India inter-institutional table tennis championship at the Bharathiar University Indoor Hall here on Tuesday.
It was not easy though for Sathiyan in the final. He had an aggressive-looking youngster and teammate Harmeet Desai (PSPB) playing to his full potential. But the former stood up to the challenge to defeat the latter 11-9, 12-14, 11-7, 11-7, 9-11, 9-11, 11-7 for the title.
He was quite delighted with the victory. “I never expected it to go down to the wire as I was 3-1, 9-8 up. But I missed an easy sitter and he pounced on that to take the match to the decider,” he said.
“We have been paddling together and we know each other’s game well. I have had the edge over him but, today he showed strong attitude and I just managed to scrape through,” added Sathiyan..
Divya Deshpande (PSPB) did likewise, scoring an exciting 11-8, 11-6, 7-11, 3-11, 13-11, 5-11, 11-5 win over her teammate Archana Kamath for the women’s crown.
She had to battle through the whole championship without a coach. “It was quite difficult, but it was good for me as I was able to analyse my game much better,” said Divya.
The results (final): Men: G. Sathiyan (PSPB) bt Harmeet Desai (PSPB) 11-9, 12-14, 11-7, 11-7, 9-11, 9-11, 11-7. Doubles : Jeet Chandra & Siddesh Pande (PSPB) bt Abhishek Yadav & SFR Snehit (AAI) w/o 3-0.
Women: Divya Deshpande (PSPB) bt Archana Kamath (PSPB) 11-8, 11-6, 7-11, 3-11, 13-11, 5-11, 11-5. Doubles : Archana Kamath & Mouma Das (PSPB) bt Ayhika Mukherjee & Priyadarsini Das (RBI) 11-2, 10-12, 5-11, 11-7, 11-8.
Mixed doubles: Manav Thakkar & Archana Kamath bt Sanil Shetty & Reeth Rishya (PSPB) 11-9, 6-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-6 .
