Panchkula, July 9: Manush Shah of Gujarat, who was in hot form, had to recall all his experience to beat PSPB Academy’s Anukraj Jain 4-2 to win the Junior Boys title, while Swastika Ghosh of Maharashtra, justifying her seeding, downed state mate Manushree Patil 4-2 to win the Junior Girls crown in the 11Even Sports National Ranking (North Zone) Table TennisChampionships at the Tau Devi Lal Indoor Stadium here today.

The aggressive left-hander and top-seed was made to sweat against No. 2 seed Anukram who, after trailing 0-2, fought well to restore parity. But the bespectacled Gujarat lad, playing a fast-paced game, unsettled the Academy boy to romp home winners.

Swastika, who is No. 2 seed, had the measure of Manushree and led 2-1. But she was completely surprised by the fifth seed who changed flanks quite frequently to confuse her opponent and thus level score in the fourth. But then Swastika, hitting a nice rhythm soon after, stopped Manushree very early to wrap it up. Incidentally, this was Swastika’s second national ranking title in the category.

In the semi-finals, Manush Shah beat the stuffing out of Raegan Albuquerque to win in straight sets while Anukram Jain downed Payas Jain after dropping two games. Except for the fourth game, where Raegan resisted a bit, it was the Gujarat boy who showed authority.

Payas was a bit jaded by the time he played the semi-finals and Anukram showed far more maturity to win the match after Payas had levelled the score. In the last two games Anukram, despite being challenged, did well to dig in and come out clean.  

In what were seeded players versus unseeded ones in girls’ semi-final matches, Manushree Patil and Swastika Ghosh managed to put it across their rivals as No. 5 seed Manushree beat Radhapriya Goel of UP 4-0 but Swastika was stretched fully by Diya Chitale before the former won 4-3.

Diya, who moved from Cadet section to the Junior category, showed a lot of maturity and troubled No. 2 seed Swastika and led 3-2. But Swastika did well to comeback in the next and take it with minimal point and go on to win the decider rather easily. The UP girl was no match to Manushree though Radhapriya had done exceedingly well throughout the tournament. The maximum she could do was to stretch her in the third game which she lost after deucing.

Snehit’s run continues

Big-slayer SFR Snehit progressed to quarterfinals after beating Delhi’s Parth virmani 11-6, 11-6, 11-9, 12-10 to take on Sanish Amebekar of Maharashtra next. Sanish beat Haryana’s Sourav Saha 8-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9 in a thriller. Fourth seed Arjun Ghosh defeated Jeet Chandraa of West Bengal 4-0 while Sudhanshu Grover of PSPB overcame a fighting Sushmit Sriram of Tamil Nadu. The PSPB paddler won 11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 12-14, 8-11, 11-5, 11-5.

From the bottom half of the draw Manav Thakkar, after leading 3-1, found veteran Anirban Nandi of Railways giving him a good fight. Yet, The PSPB lad, who is seeded 3 here, won 11-7, 11-6, 10-12, 11-9, 9-11, 3-11, 11-7 to meet Anirban Ghosh in the quarters later tonight. Anirban won 4-1 against Sourgata Sarkar of LIC. No. 2 seed Anthony Amalraj, yet to hit the groove, struggled before winning against Subash Mani of Tamil Nadu 12-10, 15-17, 10-12, 11-6, 11-6, 11-7. He will take on Sanil Shetty, his PSPB teammate, who beat Yashansh Malik of Delhi 4-1.

Shamini on target

In women singles, K. Shamini has surprised many with her determination and her ability to come out of a tricky situation as she entered the quarterfinals after beating Mallika Bhandarkar 7-11, 11-7, 12-14, 11-7, 11-5, 11-3 while Krittwika Sinha Roy knocked out top-seed Suthirta Mukherjee 7-11, 11-8, 12-10, 6-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-9 in the first quarter of the draw.

Archana Kamath progressed to the quarters with a 4-1 victory over fifth seed Divya Deshpande even as Pooja Sahasrabuddhe downed Shruti Amrute of Maharashtra for a similar score. No. 3 seed Madhurika Patkar beat qualifier Pooja Sharma 4-2 after some struggle to earn a meeting in the quarterfinals with Ayhika Mukherjee, who is seeded No. 6. The latter sent former national champion Mouma Das packing in the pre-quarters. Ayhika won 11-9, 11-9, 8-11, 4-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-8.

No. 2 seed Manika Batra survived a scare from Swetha Kumaravel of IA&AD before the Commonwealth Games gold medallist won 11-5, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 5-11, 12-10. Manika will meet Sagarika Mukherjee in the quarterfinals as the Railways paddler beat Anika Das of PSPB 3-11, 12-10, 10-12, 11-7, 11-9, 10-12, 11-8.

Results:

Junior Boys: Final: Manush Shah (Guj) bt Anukram Jain (PSPBA) 12-10, 11-9, 7-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-9; Semi-finals: Manush Shah bt Raegan Albuquerque (Mah) 11-5, 11-8, 11-6, 11-3; Anukram Jain bt Payas Jain (Del) 11-7, 5-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-9, 11-8.

Junior Girls: Final: Swastika Ghosh (Mah) bt Manushree Patil (Mah) 9-11, 11-7, 11-9, 5-11, 11-4, 11-7; Semi-finals: Manushree Patil bt Radhapriya Goel (UP) 11-8, 11-4, 12-10, 11-7; Swastika Ghosh bt Diya Chitale (Mah_ 11-5, 11-9, 10-12, 7-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-8.