Patna: Two young champions, Sanil Shetty and Ankita Das, made the Platinum Jubilee year Senior National Table Tennis Championships their own, crowning themselves with the singles titles at the Patliputra Sports Complex here today.
No. 2 seed Shetty defeated his PSPB team mate Harmeet Desai 4-2 and No. 4 Ankita Das, also of PSPB, drubbed AAI’s Krittwika Sinha Roy 4-0 to take home the winners’ purse of Rs.2.30 lakh and Rs. 1.45 lakh, respectively. Incidentally, Shetty is the first national champion to emerge from Mumbai after the great Kamlesh Mehta, who last won the title in 1995.
The best part of the championships was that the old faces faded away while two youthful heroes emerged on the horizon. Fortunately, the men’s singles too had all the ingredients befitting the final, unlike the women’s final which never rose to any dizzy heights.
The left-handed Shetty proved too hot for Desai who, in the morning, had upset all calculations and form to account for Achanta Sharath Kamal. Desai, however, failed to raise his game in the final and his game lacked aggression.
In fact, Shetty was on a rampage right from the start which allowed little leeway to Desai. In a way, the latter was astounded by Shetty’s attack on both flanks, more so on his opponent’s faulty forehand. It paid rich dividends as Shetty reeled off winners after winners to unsettle his rival. For a brief period, though, Desai tried to come back but once Shetty ran up a 7-3 lead and 10-5, it was all over for Desai.
One jarring note, however, was the match was stopped for a brief while as chief minister Nitish Kumar walked up to the dais when Shetty was about to serve on his championship point. Luckily, it didn’t cost him heavily except the couple of points he lost to Desai.
As for Ankita, she hardly broke a sweat against Krittwika and it is reflected in the score line against her AAI opponent in the women’s final. Krittwika was found wanting on many fronts and Ankita just exploited them to her advantage.
Making a mockery of the seeding yet again, No. 1 men’s player Sharath and No. 3 K. Shamini in women’s singles had bowed out without a fight. Desai, who has never won against Sharath, was the better player on view today as he controlled the match tactically. To begin with, Sharatah was serving bad—three bad misses in the first game set the tone—and his misery was compounded by his weak backhand. Desai, on the other hand, was full of aggression and exploited Sharth’s weakness on the backhand to the fullest.
Desai made up for his ineffective forehand by blocking well and employed more of his backhands. Deasi took calculated risks at the long ball, his Achilles heel, and came up with several surprise winners besides playing a consistent, percentage game. Sharath, who is good at short ball, tried his luck but Desai was up to it all the time. Except for the third game, where Sharath showed glimpses of a comeback, he knew he was never in the match.
Sharath admitted as much after his semifinal loss. “My serves deserted me and was the basic mistake which I continued with. My rhythm was missing and I made far too many mistakes at the net and my backhand shots were awful. Harmeet played superbly and exploited my weakness to the hilt,” said a disappointed Sharath.
No. 2 seed and left-handed Sanil Shetty also surprised Soumyadeep Roy in the second semifinal. Roy, though managed to take a set off Shetty, was unable to cope with the breezy and aggressive Shetty.
Results:
Men: Final: Sanil Shetty (PSPB) bt Harmeet Desai (PSPB) 4-2 (11-9, 11-7, 10-12, 12-10, 7-11, 11-7; Semifinals: Harmeet Desai (PSPB) bt A. Sharath Kamal (PSPB) 4-1 (13-11, 11-7, 6-11, 11-8, 11-6), Sanil Shetty (PSPB) bt Soumyadeep Roy (WB) 4-1 (13-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-13, 11-6).
Women: Final: Ankita Das (PSPB) bt Krittwika Sinha Roy (AAI) 4-0 (11-9, 12-10, 11-8, 13-11); Semifinals: Krittwika Sinha Roy (AAI) bt K. Shamini (PSPB) 4-2 (12-10, 7-11, 5-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-6), Ankita Das (PSPB) bt Reeth Rishya (PSPB) 4-0 (11-3, 11-9, 11-3, 11-4).
Mixed Doubles: Final: Sanil Shetty/Neha Aggarwal (PSPB) bt Arjun Ghosh/Mousi Pal (WB) 3-1 (15-13, 12-10, 7-11, 14-12).
