Goa, December 19: H. Jeho of PSPB Academy and Diya Chitale brightened up the final moments when they retained the Sub-Junior Boys and Girls titles to be the toast of 11Sports 79th Cadet and Sub-Junior National Table Tennis Championships which concluded at the SP Mukherjee Indoor Stadium here today.

The little girl from Maharashtra, who had to play the singles qualifiers, also added the doubles gold in the company of Mihika Rohira earlier in the day to benefit the most this season.

Along with Diya and Jeho, Haryana’s Suhana Saini also kept the Cadet Girls crown as the three paddlers stamped their authority for the second successive year after winning their maiden national crowns at Siliguri last year. But for Preyesh Raj Suresh, the most consistent player in Cadet Boys, it was a satisfying culmination to the season after his failure to win the national title last year.  

Jeho, who needed medical attention during his semi-final match against Arush Dutt of Delhi because of a bleeding nose, defeated left-handed Dev Shroff 4-2 in the final after Diya demolished her nemesis Munmun Kundu from West Bengal 4-0.

The defensive Jeho was going to be a problem for the attacking Dev. He, however, did manage to take two games off his rival but being frustrated time and again with the slowness of the ball, Dev found it difficult to keep the ball on table. With his ploy working to perfection, the Academy boy mowed him down, step by step for this second title.

Diya’s umpteen international exposures have done a world of good to her confidence and, more importantly, she has a brilliant brain that reads the opponent’s mind and adapts well to the situation. These make a heady cocktail and when mixed with the potent weapon of drives with a powerful forehand, her rival would always be in peril. And that was what happened to Munmun who played far below her potential. Maybe, her loss in team final to Diya must have played on her mind and the Maharashtra girl exploited it to the hilt.

In semi-finals, Diya rolled past Assam’s Trisha Gogoi with a 4-0 triumph and it was a surprise to see Trisha going down without a fight after having had a good run this season. Munmun Kundu disposed of Gujarat’s Fatema Kadri, also in straight games in the second semi-final.

Incidentally, it was a profitable season to end with two titles—she had earlier won the doubles in the company of Mihika Rohira, a promising paddler to emerge from the championships.    

PREYESH, SUHANA ARE CHAMPS

Preyesh Raj, five national ranking titles this season, won his maiden national crown when he toyed with Havish Asrani of Maharashtra to beat 4-1. In what was a left-handers show, the Tamil Nadu boy proved far superior as he rose to occasion to avenge his last year’s semi-final loss at Siliguri. Preyesh beat Ayan Ghosh in what was a one-sided affair in the semi-finals, while Havish Asrani of Maharashtra, a first-time finalist, fought back well in a tight second semi-final to win 3-2.

Suhana Saini, down 0-2, came back strongly against Maharashtra’s Pritha Vartikar to overcome the initial hiccups and complete a back-to-back crown winning performance in the nationals. The match had all the thrills of a final with the Pune girl Pritha leading comfortably until Suhana decided to play her natural attacking game. Once she came to grips with herself and gauged the pace nicely, it was Suhana all the way to compensate earlier her doubles loss to the Maharashtra pair in the company of Poornima Rohilla. The Haryana pair ended up with the silver.

Earlier, Pritha overcame Nehal Venkatasamy of Tamil Nadu 3-1 in the semi-final while the Haryana girl downed Vartika Bharat of UP 3-0.

In Sub-Junior Boys doubles final, Deepit Rajesh Patil and Dev Shroff of Maharashtra defeated Delhi’s Payas Jain and Arush Dutt 3-2 in a tough match. With the match hanging in balance just before the decider, swung in favour of Maharashtra as their pair clinched it with minimal points. In a way, for Deepit it was a consolation prize as the top-seeded player in Sub-Junior singles failed to live up to his seeding and bowed out in the first round yesterday.

Results:

Cadet Boys Singles: Final: Preyesh Raj (TN) bt Havish Asrani (MHR) 11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 12-10, 11-2; Semi-finals: Preyesh Raj bt Ayan Ghosh (WB) 11-6, 11-3, 11-4; Havish Asrani (Mhr) bt Tejas Narang 11-3, 11-9, 12-14, 7-11, 11-5; Quarterfinals: Preyesh Raj bt Oishik Ghosh (WB) 12-10, 11-4, 11-6; Ayan Ghosh bt Arnav Aggarwal (PSPBA) 11-9, 11-5, 4-11, 5-11, 11-9; Havish Asrani (Mhr) bt Ankur Bhattacharjee (WB) 11-7, 9-11, 6-11, 9-11; Tejas Narang bt Shlok Bajan (PSPBA) 11-4, 11-7, 11-2.

Cadet Girls Singles: Final: Suhana Saini (HRN) bt Pritha Vartikar (MHR) 9-11, 10-12, 11-4, 11-9, 11-3, 11-6; Semi-finals: Suhana Saini bt Vartika Bharat (UP) 11-1, 11-2, 11-4; Pritha Vartikar bt Nehal Venkatasamy (TN) 5-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-7; Quarterfinals: Suhana Saini bt Taneesha Kotecha (Mhr) 11-9, 11-6, 11-6; Vartica Bharat bt Arya Songadkar (Mhr) 14-16, 12-10, 12-10, 11-3; Nehal Venkatasamy bt Kaashvi Gupta (Dli) 11-3, 11-5, 11-4; Pritha Vartikar bt Ananya Chande (Mhr) 10-12, 11-7, 6-11, 4-11.

Sub-Junior Boys: Final: H. Jeho (PSPBA) bt Dev Shroff (MHR) 11-5, 8-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-4, 11-7; Semi-finals: H. Jeho bt Arush Dutt (Dli) 11-9, 3-11, 9-11, 12-10, 5-11, 11-7, 11-4; Dev Shroff bt Payas Jain (Dli) 11-8, 11-9, 6-11, 11-5, 8-11, 11-8; Quarterfinals: Arush Dutta bt Satyamgri Gupa (PSPBA) 11-9, 11-5, 11-8; H.Jeho bt Sujan Bharadwaj (KNT) 11-6, 11-2, 10-12, 11-4; Dev Shroff bt Agniv Bhaskar (ASM0 11-5, 7-11, 11-7, 12-10; Payas Jain bt Hrishikesh Malhotra (Mhr) 11-9, 6-11, 11-7, 6-11, 12-10.

Doubles: Final: Deepit Rajesh Patil-Dev Shroff (MHR) bt Payas Jain-Arush Dutt (Dli) 11-7, 5-11 13-11, 7-11, 11-9.

Sub-Junior Girls: Final: Diya Chitale (MHR) bt Munmun Kundu (WB) 11-4, 11-5, 11-6, 11-5; Semi-finals: Diya Chitale bt Trisha Gogoi (Asm) 13-11, 11-3, 11-4, 11-2; Munmun Kundu bt Fatema Kadri (Guj) 11-9, 11-9, 11-7, 11-7; Quarterfinals: Trisha Gogoi bt Anargaya Manjunath (KNT) 11-9, 11-5, 11-8; Diya Chitale bt Shreya Shivakumar (TN) 11-6, 11-4, 11-5; Fatema Kadri bt Kavyashree Baskar (TN) 12-10, 12-10, 12-10; Munmun Kundu bt Suhana Saini (Hrn) 11-8, 11-3, 11-13, 12-10.

Doubles: Final: Diya Chitale-Mihika Rohira (MHR) bt Suhana Saini-Poornima Rohilla (HRN) 11-6, 11-7, 11-8.