Chandigarh: New season rings in new hopes. For H. Jeho of the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board Academy (PSPBA), Ajmer, and Anusha Kutumble of Madhya Pradesh the season-opening 11Even Sports National Ranking (North Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Panjab University Gymnasium Indoor Hall here proved to be a real boon.
And the two deservingly won their respective gold medals in the Sub-Junior Boys and Girls events. But it was never a cakewalk, at least for the boy from Mizoram. He had to slug it out against another PSPBA boy, Alberto Lrruta, to carve out a 4-3 verdict, while Anusha made it look so simple a case against Delhi’s Vanshika Bhargava in her 4-1 triumph.
The top-seeded Jeho, like Alberto trains at the Ajmer Academy under Chinese coach Yin Wei, and both know each other’s game too well. It also, in a way, explains how and why the final went down to the wire. If Jeho is adept at both attack and defence, Alberto who is also from Mizoram, is a good attacking player. But for the few unforced errors in the decider, it was anybody’s title.
Jeho, despite being uncomfortable about having to use new rubber, did have the upper hand with his precise attack and good defence to start with as he went 2-0 up only to lose the next two games. However, Jeho was relentless in his attack in the fifth which provided him the edge over his rival. Yet, Alberto came back nicely in the sixth to restore parity. But some of his shot selections in the crucial seventh game did him in as Jeho went from strength to strength to put the issue beyond Alberto.
In Sub-Junior Girls final, Anusha did not have to toil against the Delhi girl despite dropping a game in between. The girl from Madhya Pradesh, until this season, had very marginal successes and had never made it beyond the quarterfinals. Oozing with potential the 14-year-old from Indore, showed what is capable of by surging ahead with a 2-0 lead. Suddenly, the Delhi girl found her rhythm going well in the third and it helped her come back somewhat.
Anusha, playing too well and covering all her weaknesses, kept the ball on the table and let things take care of them. As if on cue, Vanshika made far too many mistakes apart from a few service errors which only helped Anusha’s cause as she completed the rout with clinical precision to earn the title.
With junior players already in action, the focus of battle will now shift to the men’s and women’s singles—their qualifiers slated to begin later this evening. However, all top-eight players in both sections will not enter the fray until tomorrow afternoon when the main draw events start.
The Rio Games-bound Manika Batra and Mouma Das, the top two seeds, will occupy the top and bottom halves of the draw in that order, along with other seeds Pooja Sahasrabuddhe, Madhurika Patkar, K. Shamini, Divya Deshpande, Ankita Das and Krittwicka Sinha Roy, all PSPB players evenly spread and separated in different quarters.
The surprising element of the season-opener, however, is the re-entry of six-time national champion Paulomi Ghatak. She returns to competitive fray after a gap of more than a year and motherhood. She should make it to the list of 32 qualifiers that will join the eight seeded players in the main draw. However, how her husband Soumyadeep Roy, another former national champion, fares will be watched with keen interest. His efforts year after year to stay in limelight have fructified only to some extent as he couldn’t go any farther than quarters in recent times.
With A. Sharath Kamal and Soumyajit Ghohs, both male competitors at Rio from India, preferring to skip the event here, it should be a field day for top-seeded Anthony Amalraj, Harmeet Desai, G. Sathiyan, Sudhanshu Grover, Sanil Shetty, Jubin Kumar, Subhajit Saha and Abhishek Yadav. Except for Jubin, who is turning out for hosts Haryana, the rest are from the PSPB. They will all have first-round byes and will be joined by 50 qualifiers.
Results:
Sub-Junior Boys: Final: H. Jeho (PSPBA) bt Alberto Lrruta (PSPBA) 4-3 (11-9, 13-11, 7-11, 9-11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-6); Semifinals: zJeho bt Yashansh Malik (Del) 4-3 (7-11, 8-11, 5-11, 13-11, 11-6, 13-11, 14-12); Alberto L bt C.K. Somaiya (PSPBA) 4-0 (11-4, 11-8, 11-6, 11-3); Quarterfinals: Jeho bt Dev Shroff (Mah-A) 3-0 (11-8, 11-6, 11-9), Yashansh Malik bt Vishwa Deenadayalan (TN) 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-7), Alberto L bt Sur Roy Siddhant (NB) 3-2 (11-7, 11-8, 10-12, 5-11, 11-8), C.K. Somaiya bt Jayabarth Bhattacharya (WB) 3-2 (11-4, 7-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7).
Sub-Junior Girls: Final: Anusha Kutumble (MP) bt Vanshika Bhargava (Del) 4-1 (11-6, 13-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-4; Semifinals: Anusha Kutumble bt Anjali Rohilla (Har) 4-1 (11-3, 10-12, 11-3, 11-7, 11-5), Vanshika Bhargava bt Dia Chitale (Mah-A) 4-3 (11-4, 12-10, 8-11, 7-11, 13-15, 11-7, 11-3); Quarterfinals: Anusha Kutumble bt Kajol Ramjali (AP) 3-2 (5-11, 11-5, 12-10, 7-11, 11-6), Anjali Rohilla bt Anubha Bajaj (Del) 3-2 (11-6, 9-11, 11-5, 8-11, 11-7), Dia Chitale bt Munmun Kundu (WB) 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-9), Vanshika Bhargava bt Sharmita Srinivasan (TN) 3-0 (15-13, 11-9, 11-7).
