Third seed Sanil Shetty defeated Sourav Saha 4-0 in the men's singles final while Manika Batra made the Vatika North Zone National Ranking Table Tennis Championships a memorable one to win a grand double at the Hansraj Model School hall here Wednesday.
Seeded 13th, Delhi girl Batra made a fine comeback in the women's singles to beat fifth-seed Ankita Das 4-3 after winning the the youth girls title in the morning, beating Suthirtha Mukherjee 4-1. Manika carried home a fat purse of Rs.75,000 from both the triumphs.
Southpaw Shetty was as usual in his attacking self and, despite trailing early, quickly made up to close out on Saha. This was the indication of things to come as Shetty maintained his attacking posture throughout and sent down several forehand winners which brooked little challenge from Saha. The Mumbai lad just took less than 25 minutes to complete the rout. The title triumph was worth Rs.66,000 which Sanil pocketed.
Ankita Das didn't show the kind of intensity she displayed in the earlier matches and began in a subdued manner only to up the ante from the second game. Even though Ankita and Manika were going neck and neck in the second, the former broke one of Manika's serves and served out on her chance. The Siliguri girl then surged ahead in the third and fourth games to finish them off quickly. But Manika made a valiant attempt to push Ankita on the back foot. Her efforts yielded results as she took the next game, which saw quite a few rallies, to take the final to the decider.
In the decider, Manika was on a roll. Egged on by the local support, Batra played brilliantly to run up a 4-1 lead, forcing Ankita to take timeout. Soon after Ankita managed a couple of points, but Manika weathered the storm to make it a grand double.
Results:
Men Final: Sanil Shetty bt Sourav Saha 4-0 (11-7, 11-3, 11-9, 11-9); Semifinals: Sourav Saha bt Jignesh Jaiswal 4-2 (8-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-5, 10-12, 13-11), Sanil Sehtty bt G. Sathiyan 4-0 (11-5, 11-6, 11-6, 11-8).
Women Final: Ankita Das bt Manika Batra 4-3 (11-4, 9-11, 7-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-8); Semifinals: Ankia Das bt Madhurika Patkar 4-0 (11-6, 11-8, 11-9, 11-9), Manika Batra bt Poulomi Ghatak 4-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-6,11-5).
Youth Boys: Final: Abhishek Yadav b Sourav Saha 4-2 (9-11, 4-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7, 12-10); Semifinals: Sourav Saha bt Nishaad Shah 4-0 (11-3, 11-9, 11-8, 11-5), Abhishek Yadav bt Sudhanshu Grover 4-3 (8-11, 11-13, 11-4, 8-11, 11-3, 13-11, 11-6).
Youth Girls: Final: Manika Batra bt Suthirtha Mukherjee 4-1 (13-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-7, 11-8).
