Panchkula: Arya Sarthak of the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board Academy (PSPBA) made huge amends in the final to win the Youth Boys Under-15 trophy at the UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the Tau Devi Lal Indoor Stadium today.
His authoritative 3-1 victory over Rupam Sardar overshadowed his semifinal loss in the previous outing at Vijayawada and justified his top-seed position again.
In the Youth Girls U-15 section, Syndrela Das put her quarterfinal loss at Vijayawada behind and beat Riana Bhoota of Maharashtra 3-1 for the title. Riana, who lifted the trophy the last time, failed to repeat her performance as the left-handed Maharashtra paddler could not match Syndrela’s aggressive approach.
Rupam Sardar is a promising youngster from West Bengal who does all the hard work in the initial stages but never presses home the advantage when it matters, like in the final today. It was the best opportunity for him against Arya. Yet, the PSPBA boy, with a new coach in Peter from Germany, proved a notch better than Rupam, despite his excellent second game in which he hardly allowed Arya to dominate him.
Arya, who accounted for Ritvik Gupta from J and K, was in some danger in the semifinals when the latter took the lead. But Arya won the second easily before encountering troubles in the third extended game. Similarly, Rupam faced stiff resistance from Sahil Rawat of PSPBA in the second semifinal, but the Maharashtra paddler arrested the threat from Sahil.
Syndrela, who swept three titles at Vadodara, was the second seed here. But the top-seeded Riana did well to take the second game, giving a glimpse of a fightback. Nevertheless, the West Bengal paddler went on the rampage and easily finished the match.
The match between Ritvik and Soham Mukherjee went the distance as Soham led 2-1 before Ritvik sealed his fate, winning the last two games in the quarterfinals. Delhi’s Prisha Goel played brilliantly to counter and even led 2-1 in her quarterfinal match against Vani Sharma of Chandigarh. But Vani took advantage of a few negative points and upped the ante to advance to the semifinals, where she faced an in-form Syndrela, the eventual title winner.
Results;
Youth Boys U-15: Final: Arya Sarthak (PSPBA) bt Rupam Sardar (WB) 11-2, 3-11, 11-7, 11-6.
Semifinals: Arya Sarthak bt Ritvik Gupta (JK) 7-11, 11-7, 12-1011-6; Rupam Sardar bt Sahil Rawat (PSPBA) 6-11, 11-9, 11-9, 12-10.
Quarterfinals: Arya Sarthak bt Rajdip Sen (NCOE) 11-5, 11-5, 11-5; Ritvik Gupta bt Soham Mukherjee (WB) 7-11, 14-12, 11-8, 5-11, 11-9; Rupam Sardar bt Arya Kataria (Guj)11-7, 11-8, 11-5; Sahil Rawat bt Aditya Das (WB) 11-6, 11-2, 11-6.
Youth Girls U-15: Final: Syndrela Das (WB) bt Riana Bhoota (Mah) 11-6, 5-11, 11-5, 11-5.
Semifinals: Riana Bhoota bt Kavya Bhatt (Mah) 9-11, 11-1, 13-11, 11-5; Syndrela Das bt Vani Sharma (Chd) 11-7, 11-6, 11-8.
Quarterfinals: Riana Bhoota bt Aarushi Nandi (WB) 11-7, 11-2, 11-6; Kavya Bhatt bt Avisha Karmakar (Del) 11-8, 3-11, 13-11, 11-8; Vani Sharma bt Prisha Goel (Del) 9-11, 11-9, 7-11, 13-11, 11-2; Das Syndrela bt Ahona Ray (WB) 11-7, 11-6, 11-6.
-TTFI
