Siddesh, Suthirta lift singles titles at Table Tennis Championship

GUWAHATI: It was one of the best men singles finals one had witnessed in a long time in a national ranking tournament. And when Siddhesh Pandey, the deserving winner lifted the glittering trophy and received the prize cheque of Rs. 77,000 at the 11 Sports National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships from chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the spectators stood in unison to applaud his efforts at the RG Barua Sports Complex’s Indoor Stadium here today.

The unseeded paddler beat the original title-contender and top-seed Manav Thakkar from PSPB 4-3 in a marathon that lasted nearly an hour and what turned the tables against Manav was the way the Maharashtra lad staged his recovery in the sixth game—he was 4-7 down—to win 15-13 after saving two game points and level 3-3. This was probably the trigger for him to go all out in the decider.

Meanwhile Suthirta Mukherjee was on song as she extended her rein to add the second crown this season, blanking out Madhurika Patkar 4-0. The Haryana paddler, who won her first title at Vijayawada a couple of weeks ago in the South Zone, went on the attack right from the word go to unsettle the former national champion.

After winning the first game with minimal points—Madhurika resisted well in the first—Suthirta went on a rampage from which Madhurika could not recover. Even her best weapon, the forehand topspin deserted and she made far too many errors at the net to hasten Suthirtha’s win. But credit must go to the Haryana girl who was focused on the job at hand and through sheer hard work achieved the positive result and carried home Rs. 66,000, the winner’s prize purse.

In the Youth section Manav Thakkar and Prapti Sen claimed the Youth Boys and Youth Girls titles, beating Jeet Chandra (4-1) and Sreeja Akula (4-2), respectively.

RESULTS: Women Singles: Final: Suthirta Mukherjee (Har) bt Madhurika Patkar (PSPB) 11-9, 11-8, 11-6, 11-6; Men Singles: Final: Siddhesh Pande (Mah) bt Manav Thakkar (PSPB) 11-8, 4-11, 11-8, 7-11, 8-11, 15-13, 12-10; Youth Girls Singles: Final: Prapti Sen (WB) bt Sreeja Akula (RBI) 11-6, 4-11, 4-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-5; Youth Boys Singles: Final: Manav Thakkar (PSPB) bt Jeet Chandra (Har) 10-12, 11-2, 11-5, 11-3, 11-6.