Manav kicks off season in style, wins Hyderabad national ranking
Gandhidham, June 09: Surat-boy Manav Thakkar kicked off the new table tennis season in style after he came back from a game down to go past FR Snehit 4-2 (5-11,13-11, 8-11,11-3,11-4,12-10) and captured the UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships 2023 played in Hyderabad, Telangana on Friday.
The tournament is organized by Telangana State Table Tennis Association under the aegis of Table Tennis Federation of India.
It was Manav’s first national ranking title since National rankings in thane played in November 2019 and his first final appearance since 2021 December national ranking played in Dehradun.
Representing PSPB, the third seed Manav romped past 25th seed Sourav Saha (PSPB) 3-0 in the quarters. The 23-year-old looked in ominous form in semis where he thrashed state-mate and second seed Manush Shah (RBI) 4-0 (11-7, 11-5, 12-10, 11-3).
Vadodara’s Manush had earlier defeated former national champion Anthony Amalraj (PSPB) 3-1 (12-10, 9-11, 11-5, 11-2) to storm into semis.
Other Gujarat paddler and top seed Harmeet Desai, however, had to face disappointment when he lost to young Payas Jain (Delhi) 2-3 (12-10, 5-11, 11-4, 6-11, 9-11) in pre-quarters.
In boys-11 (Hopes), Ansh Khamar went down fighting to top Seed Vinodh Krish (TN) 2-3 (11-6,6-11,11-13,12-10,8-11) in the quarterfinals.
“Manav coming back to form and getting this result is extremely heartening. We all know that he has been putting in the hard yards,” Gujarat State Table Tennis Association (GSTTA) president, Shri Pramod Chaudhary said.
Congratulating all Gujarat paddlers who have done well in the meet, secretary, GSTTA, Kushal Sangtani said that table tennis in Gujarat is headed in the right direction. “Our paddlers are now hunting in packs. Many paddlers are performing well at the national level,” Sangtani said.
Other notable results:
Junior boys (U-19): 11-Burhanudin Malubhaiwala lost to Rohit Shankar (Karnataka) 0-3 (9-11,10-12,7-11) in pre-quarters.
Cadet girls (U-13): 16-Daniya Godil lost to top Seed Ahona Ray (Bengal) 0-3 (7-11,6-11,5-11) in pre-quarters.
Hopes girls (U-11) Vincy Tanna lost to A Bavithra (TN) 1-3 (5-11,5-11,11-6,4-11) in pre-quarters.
List of paddlers who played well to qualify for the main draw.
Mens: Soham Bhattacharya, Jaynil Mehta, Riyan Dutta, Harsh Patel,
Womens: Krittwika Sinha Roy
U-19 Boys: Himansh Dahiya, Armaan Shaikh
U-19 Girls: Aastha Mistry
U-17 Boys: Dhyey Jani, Arya Kataria, Janmejay Patel, Ayush Tanna, Abhilaksh Patel, Malav Panchal, Manav Mehta,
U-17 Girls: Riya Jayswal, Arnee Parmar, Mouboni Chatterjee
U-15 Boys: Arya Kataria, Malav Panchal
U-15 Girls: Mouboni Chatterjee, Jiya Trivedi,
U-13 Boys: Krishnav Gupta, Ansh Khamar,
U-13 Girls: Fiza Pawar