Indore, March 11: In a tale of two neighbours, Delhi’s Payas Jain emerged on top. 

In the Youth Boys singles final, he outclassed Haryana’s Jeet Chandra 4-3 to claim the UTT 82nd Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships at the Abhay Prashal today. Half an hour before, he retained the Junior Boys crown and, thus, completed a double. Payas laughed all his way to the bank with the cumulative prize purse of Rs. 1.32 lakh for both wins. 

Payas also became the only third paddler to achieve a rare double in the same Nationals in recent times. Manav Thakkar of Gujarat did it in 2016 at Vadodara and Manush Shah, also from Gujarat, followed him at Sonepat in 2018. 

Archana Kamath accomplished it in Durgapur in 2017 when Jeet won his first Junior National title. Diya Chitale is the other female player who achieved the distinctions at the Jammu Nationals in 2019. 

Payas was nicely warmed-up for the occasion, despite the hiccups in the Junior Boys semifinals. His potent backhand and clever service variations, too, hastened to help him in the process. After winning the Junior Boys final, he hardly had 10 minutes break before the Youth final’s start. But he was never in trouble as he went 3-2 up and well placed to wrap it up in the sixth game. However, Jeet won on his first game point to level 3-3.

Probably, let off by his expectations, the Delhi boy hit a nice rhythm in the seventh and kept increasing the lead. The pressure was telling on the Haryana boy, without a coach to guide, as he looked forlorn. He just managed three points in the decider and the rest, as they say, is history.

The Junior Boys singles final not only lacked the bite but also failed to live up to expectations. And, Payas Jain defeated Deepit Rajesh Patil 4-1 to retain his title. The triumph fetched him Rs. 60,000 in prize money. Incidentally, this was the third final for the Delhi lad.

There were some moments in the third game when Payas lost way, allowing the Maharashtra boy to take a game off him. But the Delhi boy steadied himself and approached the match clinically to finish it in style. Payas, who employed his reliable backhand to nail his opponent, also converted points to his account after long rallies, which kept the audience hooked on to the match.

The inner game

Thinking about a game or a match constitutes a loss. Both Jeet Chandra of Haryana and Payas Jain of Delhi had to come out of the ‘the inner game’ phenomena in their Youth Boys and Junior Boys semi-finals, respectively, to stamp their authority. And when they did, the results proved sweeter than wine.

Jeet had several critical moments—he was down 0-3 and 1-6 against Raegan Albuquerque—and needed somebody to advise. Even during timeouts and the breaks between games, the Haryana boy stood quiet near the table looking forlorn.

The next thing you knew was Jeet was serving the basic, with no frills. A frustrated Raegan, unable to adjust to the pace, committed errors allowing Jeet to progress. The process was slow but very effective. The real clincher was when Reagan lost two match points in the fifth game. Jeet won his third game point, never to look back. Narrowing the gap, he mounted pressure in the decider. On his first service, he went 10-9 up, and on the second, Raegan’s exasperation was complete when he failed to keep the ball in play.  He could not win one last game and will have to contend with the bronze medal.

In the second semi-final, Payas defeated Anukram Jain of the Railways 4-1 to enter his second final, within 30 minutes of each other.

The Delhi boy was down 0-2 in his Junior Boys semi-final against Telangana’s Varun Shankar Balusuri. It was no different in the third game for Payas until, at deuce, he converted the opportunities into points to reduce the margin. Varun never returned to himself in the match after that.  Payas kept pushing him to the corner, and suddenly Varun was forced into committing more mistakes. The Telangana boy’s body language suggested all negativities, and the positive vibes seemed to have shifted the Payas way.

In the second semi-final, Maharashtra’s Deepit Patil put the first-game loss behind him to outlast Yashansh Malik 4-1. The second-seeded Delhi boy was not getting his drives or shots right and folded quickly.

Results:

Youth Boys: Final: Payas Jain (Del) bt Jeet Chandra (Har) 11-5, 10-12, 18-20, 11-9, 11-7, 10-12, 11-3.

Semi-finals: Jeet Chandra bt Raegan Albuquerque (Mah) 7-11, 11-13, 7-11, 11-9, 15-13, 11-9, 11-9, Payas Jain bt Anukram Jain (RSPB) 11-5, 7-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-8.

Junior Boys: Final: Payas Jain (Del) bt Deepit Rajesh Patil (Mah) 11-5, 11-3, 9-11, 11-7, 11-5.

Semi-finals: Payas Jain bt Varun Shankar Balusuri (Telg) 8-11, 9-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-5, 11-8, Deepit Patil bt Yashansh Malik (Del) 8-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-9, 11-9.