Telangana teams begin well at table tennis Sr nationals
The Telangana men’s and women’s teams won two team matches each on the opening day of the UTT 81st National Table Tennis Championships at the Saroonagar Indoor Stadium here on Monday.
The men defeated Meghalaya 3-0 and last edition’s semifinalists Uttar Pradesh 3-1. They will play their final group match against Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday.
The women’s team were too powerful for Puducherry, beating them 3-0. They then went on to beat Rajasthan 3-0. The women too are scheduled to play Himachal Pradesh in their final group match.
Meanwhile, reigning women champions Bengal ‘A’ held sway in Group ‘A’, winning both their matches. They first accounted for Uttar Pradesh 3-2 before subduing Goa 3-0 to occupy the top rung in the points table.
As for Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB), they had sufficient firepower and they did not miss the services of two important members of their squad — Madhurika Patkar and Archana Kamath — who are expected to arrive from Portugal on Tuesday. Meanwhile, they went ahead with Group ‘B’ programme against Uttarakhand and Andhra Pradesh, beating both teams 3-0, respectively.
That was the case in most other groups except in Group ‘G’, where leader Gujarat not only suffered a setback to their campaign when Assam, helped by young Trisha Gogoi, defeated them 3-2 in their first round group match.
However, for Gujarat, who finished among the quarterfinalists of the last edition at Cuttack, it must have come as a rude shock. The loss must have put in them a piquant situation as they have to win the remaining matches, particularly the one against Haryana, who will be strengthened by the return of Sutirtha Mukherjee from Portugal, to grab the second spot.