Jalandhar: Gujarat A blanked out West Bengal A 3-0 to claim the gold and the team trophy in the final of the UTT 29th National Masters Table Tennis Championships at the PAP’s Bhullar Indoor Stadium here later on Tuesday.
Bengal’s Indresh Purohit defeated Bishwanath Chakravarti 11-2, 11-5, 11-2 putting the team in the lead. Nazmi Khinkhabwala beat Animesh Mitra 11-8, 11-6, 11-2 and both Indresh and Nazmi joined hands to win the doubles rubber against Bishwanath and Animesh 11-3, 11-4, 11-6 to accomplish the feat.
Earlier, Maharashtra A entered the semifinals and will clash with Maharashtra B in the men’s 70+ category, while Chandigarh will take on Delhi in the other semi-final.
With six teams in the fray, last year’s winners and runners-up, Maharashtra A and Delhi A, got a bye in the quarterfinals, leaving the arena open entirely to the other four teams.
In a quarterfinal match, Maharashtra B defeated Delhi B 3-1 to enter the semi-finals, while Chandigarh A downed Madhya Pradesh A 3-0 to take the other spot in the last four.
Maharashtra B began on the wrong note as Shekhar Varadakar lost to Suresh Kumar of Delhi B 3-11, 6-11, 3-11, but Ulhan Shirke defeated Brij Mohan 11-5, 11-8, 11-6 to level the score. Ulhas and Shekhar combined well to beat the Delhi pair of Suresh Kumar and Brij Mohan 11-6, 8-11, 11-4, 1-11, 11-2 to consolidate their position before Ulhas Shirke finished the job for Maharashtra B, beating Suresh Kumar 14-12, 12-10, 11-8 and seal their place.
As for Chandigarh, they didn’t have any problem against Madhya Pradesh as Balbir Singh Virdi defeated Amrjeet Singh 11-4, 11-6, 11-8. Patanjali Kumar took less than 30 minutes to down RP Malviya 11-4, 11-5, 11-5, and the two Chandigarh teammates easily won against Ramesh Prakash and J.P. Singh of MP, winning 11-2, 11-5, 11-2.
In the men’s 40+ category, IA&AD defeated UP-B 3-0, Maharashtra beat Gujarat A 3-0, Bengal A downed TTFI 2A 3-1, UP A won over Punjab C 3-0, Maharashtra accounted for RBI A 3-1, Delhi B beat TTFI 2B 3-1, IA&AD B scored a 3-1 win over Delhi A, and Punjab A defeated Karnataka A 3-1 to enter the quarterfinals.
Indian Audit-A and B, Delhi B, Maharashtra A and B, Karnataka A, and Chhattisgarh A squads received byes in the men’s 50+ main draw, and they will play from the round of 32. Other teams that joined them included TTFI-1A, Uttar Pradesh A, Chhattisgarh B, Himachal Pradesh A, Punjab A, and Maharashtra C.
-TTFI
