SILIGURI, JANUARY 8: Top-seed G Sathiyan gave himself a nice birthday present when he outsmarted local favourite Raj Mondal, seeded four, 4-2 to enter the final of the Indian Oil 73rd Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships here at the Municipal Corporation Indoor Stadium on Sunday.

The PSPB boy will take on teammate Soumyajit Ghosh, who earlier blanked out PSPB-A’s Sudanshu Grover 4-0, in the final to be played later in the evening. In youth girls, it will be an all-PSPB show with No. 1 seed Ankita Das taking on Pooja Saharasabudhe in the final. Ankita beat teammate Reeth Rishya 4-0 while Pooja overcame a determined Nikhat Bhanu 4-2.

With the noise reaching its crescendo at the stadium, Mondal was subdued to begin with, particularly when Sathiyan was unleashing his powerful smashes to lead 2-0. In the third, Sathiyan, despite leading 2-0 and then 5-1, let a small window of opening for Mondal to stage a recovery. Mondal ultimately won 13-11 and won the next at 11-8 to create some self-doubts in the mind of Sathiyan.

But then Sathiyan, who excels in adverse conditions, did precisely that to win the fifth game at 11-9 to go up 3-2. In the decider, with crowd egging on Monday was on his feet again and gave a harrowing time to his rival. But the experience of Sathiyan saw him level at 9-9 and despite leading changing hands, he held on to his nerve to win at 15-13.

Sathiyan did admit after the match that he was a bit nervous but gave full credit to Mondal who played an extremely good match. “It was my mistake to allow him the liberty in the third game which put me in trouble. Thanks to my experience and my mental make-up, I was able to come out of the pit,” said Sathiyan.

On his chances in the final, Sathiyan said both he and Soumyajit know each other well. “But on my birthday, the icing on the cake will be winning the national title for a second time. However, I will have to be careful against Soumyajit,” he said.

In junior boys final, it will be a PSPB-A show with  Sudanshu Grovere will take on Abhishek Yadav  while in the girls final, Karnam Spoorthy of Andhra will meet Reeth Rishya of PSPB.

The Results:

JUNIOR BOYS: Semi-finals:
Sudanshu Grover bt Anandaraj R 4-0 (11-4, 11-8, 11-6, 11-9)
Abhishek Yadav bt Viveh Bhargava 4-0 (9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-6, 11-4)

JUNIOR GIRLS: Semi-finals:
Karnam Spoorthy bt Manika Batra 4-1 (1108, 11-7, 6-11, 11-6, 11-9)
Reeth Rishya bt Mallika Bhandarkar 4-1 (11-2, 11-9, 9-11, 11-7, 11-6)

YOUTH BOYS: Semi-finals:
Soumyajit Ghosh bt Sudanshu Grover 4-0 (1106, 11-9, 11-8, 11-4)
G. Sathiyan bt Raj Mondal 4-2 (11-3, 11-6, 11-13, 8-11, 11-9, 15-13)

YOUTH GIRLS: Semi-finals:
Ankita Das bt Reeth Rishya 4-0 (11-7, 11-9, 11-7, 11-5)
Pooja Sarasrabudhe bt Nikhat Bhanu 4-2 (11-13, 11-6, 11-6, 9-11, 11-3, 11-5)