Thaindian News

Bangalore, Sep 9 (IANS) Sharath Kamal and Shamini Kumaresan emerged the men’s and women’s singles champions at the Indian Oil Servo National Ranking South Zone Table Tennis Championships which concluded at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium here Sunday.

Sharath showed why he is adored by many table tennis aficionados all around the world when he beat left-handed Jubin Kumar 4-2 after being down 1-2. Sharath needed to re-establish himself as the top player of the country after having lost the national and Inter-Institutional titles to relatively junior players.

Shamini started with a bang against Ankita Das, winning the first game only to lose momentum in the second. Before things could turn worse, she held on to her nerves to take the second game at 17-15 on the sixth game point. All along, Ankita was not giving up, but was certainly losing her way as repeated backhand chop and low toss serves fetching points to her opponent. However, she won the next two rather easily, wearing out Shamini.

But in the crucial fifth game, the two-time national champion led her way all through and shut out whatever little challenge that came from Ankita. With a decisive 3-2 lead, all Shamini had to do was play carefully in the sixth. She did that to greater perfection as an error-prone Ankita was struggling to find her feet as she net-corded most of her returns. That Shamini won the game 11-7 and the crown.

In the youth boys and girls finals, G. Sathiyan defeated Sourav Saha 4-2 while Krittiwika Sinha Roy dumped Manika Batra 4-3 to win the titles.

Results:
Men (Final): Achanta Sharath Kamal (PSPB) bt Jubin Kumar (PSPB) 11-8, 7-11, 10-12, 11-3, 11-5, 11-7; Semifinals: Achanta Sharath Kamal (PSPB) bt Anirban Ghosh (WB) 11-1, 11-7, 13-11, 11-8, Jubin Kumar (PSPB) bt Soumyadeep Roy (PSPB) 11-8, 11-7, 11-4, 11-6.

Women (Final): K. Shamini (PSPB) bt Ankita Das (PSPB) 11-7, 17-15, 5-11, 4-11, 11-7, 11-4. Semifinals: Ankita Das (PSPB) Mouma Das (PSPB) 11-7, 11-6, 4-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-3, K. Shamini (PSPB) bt Polulomi Ghatak (PSPB) 11-9, 11-7, 8-11, 12-10, 9-11, 8-11, 11-6.

Youth Boys (Final): G. Sathiyan (PSPB) bt Sourav Saha (PSPB) 11-2, 14-12, 11-6, 6-11, 7-11, 13-11.

Youth Girls (Final): Krittiwika Sinha Roy (AAI) bt Manika Batra (PSPB) 5-11, 11-9, 11-4, 3-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7.