Shillong, June 19: The Indian boys and girls achieved a Perfect Ten score. Their domination in the SAF Junior Table Tennis Championships, being held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Complex indoor hall here, was complete when they won all the six finals on the concluding today, returning an impressive tally of 10 gold and four silver medals. They had bagged four gold medals in team events yesterday.

The Indian paddlers yet again proved their pre-eminence in all the four categories, making the SAF event a completely one-sided affair. In a way, it also exposed the other contenders’ lack of ability to challenge the Indian supremacy.

With the Indian boys and girls competing against one another for the gold in the singles events of the junior boys and girls sections as well as in the Cadet category, the curiosity was limited to which of the Indian players would be the winners.

In the junior boys section, No. 2 seed Abhishek Yadav defeated No. 1 Sudhanshu Grover10-12, 11-7, 9-11, 11-4, 11-4, 11-7, while in the junior girls section Reeth Tennison overcame a tough Mallika Bhandarkar 4-3 (10-12, 11-7, 11-5, 6-11,11-7, 11-13, 11-4) in the best of seven finals. In Cadet boys’ Utkarsh Gupta won in straight games against Birdie Bora while Karnam Spoorthy emerged triumphant against Sutirtha Mukherjee in a gruelling final.

Southpaw Yadav combined guile with precision to shut out the challenge from Grover despite losing the first and the third games. Grover did show his aggressive pattern of play, but Yadav was up to it to take him head on. Once he gained ascendancy in the fourth game winning it 11-4, it was curtains for Grover. At match point in the decider, Yadav was leading 10-4, but let his opponent some leeway to come back. The latter scored three straight points before Yadav took his timeout to slow him down. It worked and he shut out to win his maiden SAF title.

In junior boys’ doubles, Abhishek Yadav and Sudhanshu Grover combined together to beat the Nepalese pair of Mani Lama and Anish Shrestha 3-0 and Reeth and Mallika won the junior girls doubles beating the Sri Lankan duo of Ruvini Sankalpana and Chandima Madushani for a similar verdict.

The final of the day turned out to be the one between Mallika and Reeth with none of them giving conceding even an inch in the gripping title clash. With the ball stopping and coming because of the moisture in atmosphere, the rallied were few and far between even as the players struggled to the send the ball across the net. Even as Reeth was playing an attacking game, her opponent depended too much on her defensive play with surprise forehand smashes.

Though Mallika, trailing 6-10, came back to win the first game 12-10, but the next two games went Reeth’s way. From there, the fortunes kept changing with the players taking a game each to drag it to the decider which the Andhra girl won comfortably in the end for her first international title.

Even Spoorthy was in a somewhat similar situation against Sutirtha in the Cadet final before winning gold with a 3-2 verdict. In the see-saw final, Spoorthy was leading 10-6 in the decider but Sutirtha launched a fine attack to level the score at 10-all. However, it was Spoorthy who kept a cool head to win the crucial two points to take the match 3-11, 11-7, 11-13, 11-7, 13-11.

The results:

Boys’: Junior (singles): Final - Abhishek Yadav bt Sudhanshu Grover 10-12, 11-7, 9-11, 11-4, 11-4, 11-7;. Semifinals - Sudhanshu Grover (Ind) bt Salman Virk (Pak) 11-6, 5-11, 11-5, 12-14, 11-6, 11-6; Abhishek Yadav (Ind) 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. Semifinals - Sudhanshu & Abhishek bt Ashiqur Rahman & Jubair Ahmed (Ban) 11-4, 11-7, 11-8; Mani & Anish bt Mudiyansela Jayasundara & Supun Tharuka Sirisena (Sri) 11-9, 8-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-8.

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. Semifinals - Reeth Rishya & Mallika bt Abeera Ali Sheikh & Farwa Babar (Pak) 11-4, 11-9, 11-7; Ruvini & Chandima bt Sunita Lama & Kajol Rauniyar (Nep) 11-2, 11-5, 11-7.

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.