Sathiyan, Suthirtha emerge champions

G. Sathiyan of PSPB and Suthirtha Mukherjee of West Bengal were crowned men’s women’s champions respectively in the 11Even Sports National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships, which is being played at Abhay Prashad Indoor Stadium, here, on Thursday.

In the men’s final the wily Sathiyan stamped his superiority with a clinical performance to quash the aspirations of West Bengal’s talented paddler Arjun Ghosh by recording an authoritative 4-0 (11-5, 11-6, 11-6, 11-2) victory without much ado.

Earlier, the women’s summit clash also witnessed a one-sided contest as the consistent and hard-working Suthirtha was in complete control against a determined Sreeja Akula from Telenga. The West Bengal paddler played solidly from the start and emerged a comfortable 41 winner with the game scores reading at11-4, 5-11, 11-6, 11-4, 12-10.

Meanwhile, Ronit Bhanjan from West Bengal and Tamil Nadu’s Selenadeepthi Selvakumar claimed the Youth Boys and Girls Singles crowns respectively.

Ronit with some clever and calculated play put it across fancied Manav Thakkar of PSPB by posting a deserving 42 (11-4, 7-11, 13-11, 11-4, 12-14, 1412) victory in the final.

In the Youth Girls final, Selenadeepthi was engaged in a grim battle for supremacy with favourite and top seed Archana Kamath of PSPB and the match went to the wire. However, the Tamil Nadu girl stayed focused and held her composure and managed to come through in seven tough games winning at 4-3 (11-9, 611, 11-9, 11-9, 6-11, 9-11, 11-4) to emerge champion.