Indore, October 7: PSPB Academy’s Manav Thakkar, justifying his top billing, routed No. 3 Jeet Chandra from West Bengal 4-0 to win the Junior Boys singles title in the National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Abhay Prashal here today.

The Junior Girls crown went to Payal Bohra of Maharashtra B. She defeated topseed Archana Kamath 4-2. The Cadet Boys and Girls trophies went to Payas Jain from Delhi and Munmun Kundu of West Bengal. Payas, winning his maiden title, downed Telangana’s Varun Shanker Balusuri 3-2 and Munmun too scored a similar win over Swastika.

While Manav, playing an attacking game, disposed of Jeet in double quick time, the final between Archana and Payal had all the thrills and consumed nearly 40 minutes. It was fast game interspersed with good rallies and at one point of time Archana had caught up with Archana to level 2-2. But then Payal unleashed several forehand winners to go and subsequently seat Archana’s fate. In the case of Delhi’s Payas, who led 2-1, let Varun Shanker off the hook in the fourth before pulling his socks to cover up the damage and romp home winners.

All the winners carried home a sizeable prize money for their efforts in the championships.

Unlike some of the quarterfinals, the outcome of semifinals in all sections were along the expected lines with No. 1 seed Manav Thakkar being his PSPBA teammate Anukram Jain, Jeet Chandra winning over Ashwin in an easy outing. Similarly, the sub-junior girls semifinals also saw Archana Kamath (PSPB) and Payal Bohra (Mah-B) winning their respective matches.

In the sub-junior boys quarterfinals, top seeded Manav Thakkar, No. 3 Jeet Chandra (WB) and No. 7 Ashwin Subramanian (Mah) sailed into the semifinals, while ninth seeded Anukram Jain, who felled No. 4 seed Shaurya Pednekar earlier, beat Goa’s Wesley Rosario 11-9, 11-9, 11-7 to move in. Though Manav it in straight games against Delhi’s Parth Virmani, the top-seed was extended in the second game which Manav won 14-12. Even Jeet Chandra had to contend with Gujarat’s Manush Shah who took a game off the West Bengal player who won 11-9, 7-11, 11-8, 11-6.

In the sub-junior girls section, PSPB’s Archana Kamath and Maharashtra’s Payal Bohra won 3-0 against their Tamil Nadu and West Bengal rivals, another Karnataka girl Kushi Viswanath struggled to beat Prapti Sen of West Bengal 3-2. But it was remarkable that Kushi after being 1-2 down came back to win the last two games. Similarly, Rajasthan’s Priyanka Pareek, leading 2-0, clawed her way back into the match beating Yashini Sivshankar 3-2.

In Cadet Boys, Varun Shankar of Telangana was stretched the full distance by Ritvik Nagle of Maharashtra as the former prevailed winning his quarterfinals 3-2. In other matches, Jeho Himnakulhpuingheta (PSPB) beat Rudranarayan Ghosh (WB) 3-0, Payas Jain (Del) downed Jayabrata Bhattacharjee (North Bengal) 3-1, and Alberto Lrruata (PSPB) won over Juber Khan (Kerala) 3-0.

In Cadet Girls quarterfinals, Swastika Ghosh (Mah), Munmun Kundu (WB) and Vanshika Bhargava (Del) scored an identical 3-0 victory over their rivals while Diya Chitale of Maharashtra conceded a game to Suhana Saini of Harayan in a 3-1 score line.

Results:

Sub-Junior Boys: Final: Manav Thakkar (PSPBA) bt Jeet Chandra (WB) 4-0 (11-8, 11-4, 11-2, 11-3); Semifinals: Manav Thakkar (PSPBA) bt Anukram Jain (PSPBA) 4-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-5, 11-4), Jeet Chandra (WB) bt Ashwin Subramanian (Mah-B) 4-1 (11-7, 12-10, 8-11, 11-6, 11-7).

Sub-Junior Girls: Final: Payal Bohra (Mah-B) bt Archana Kamath (PSPB) 4-2 (11-3, 8-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-6, 11-9);Semifinals: Archana Kamath (PSPB) bt Kushi Viswanath (KNT) 4-1 (5-11, 11-5, 11-6, 12-10, 11-6), Payal Bohra (Mah-B) bt Priyanka Pareek (Raj) 3-2 (7-11, 12-10, 11-6, 11-9, 11-5).

Cadet Boys: Final: Payas Jain (Del) bt Varun Shankar (Telg) 3-2 (4-11, 11-9, 12-10, 6-11, 11-6); Semifinals:Varun Shankar (Telg) bt Jeho Himnakulhpuingheta (PSPBA) 4-1 (7-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-4), Payas Jain (Del) bt Alberto Lrruata (PSPBA) 3-1 (11-6, 11-8, 9-11, 11-8)

Cadet Girls: Final: Munmun Kundu (WB) bt Swastika Ghosh (Mah-B) 3-2 (13-15, 11-8, 11-7, 1-11, 11-3); Semifinals: Swastika Ghosh (Mah-B) bt Diya Chitale (Mah-B) 3-1 (6-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-5), Munmun Kundu (WB) Vanshika Bhargava (Del) 3-1 (11-9, 11-5, 9-11, 11-9).