Gujarat’s Malav misses out on semis berth
Vadodara, Jan 17: Gujarat’s Malav Panchal’s incredible run in the youth boys (U-13) category was halted in the quarterfinal stage where he faced a tough 0-3 loss to J&K’s Ritvik Gupta thus ending his journey in the UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championship 2022 played at SAMA Indoor Sports Complex in Vadodara on Tuesday.
Ahmedabad-boy Malav, 12, was the last-paddler standing for the host state in the main draw after Samarth Shekhawat, Manav Mehta, Daniya Godil, Jiya Trivedi, Mouboni Chatterjee lost in the pre-quarterfinal stage.
In the under-15 category, Gujarat’s Aayush Tanna, Himansh Dahiya, Pratha Pawar, Riya Jayswal, Mouboni Chatterjee, Jiya Trivedi and Nidhi Prajapati went through the grind to make it to the main draw of the boys and girls’ U-15 category but only Surat’s Aayush and Ahmedabad girl Pratha managed to get past the Round of 64.
While Aayush thumped Tanish Pendse 3-0 (11-3,11-6,11-7) to book his Round of 32 berth, international medalist Pratha engaged in an intense battle of grit with Ditsa Roy (BEN A) finally shutting the door on her 3-2 (10-12,11-5,9-11,11-9,12-10).
Nidhi went down to Ayushi Singhal (DEL) 0-3, Jiya was blanked by M Ananya (TN) bt 0-3 and
Mouboni too lost 0-3 to B Reena (TN) to out meekly.
Meanwhile, UP’s Veer Balmiki grabbed the boys U-11 title after he put up a superb show to get the better of Prateek Tulsani (MAHA B) 3-0. Saturya Banerjee (BEN A) bagged the girls’ U-11 title after defeating Tanishka Kalbhairav (KAR) 3-1.
The under-13 boys’ trophy was won by PSPB ‘A’ paddler Sahil Rawat.
Final results:
– Youth Boys (U-11): Veer Balmiki (UP) bt Prateek Tulsani (MAHA B) 3-0 (11-4, 11-4,11-8);
– Youth Girls (U-11): Saturya Banerjee (BEN A) bt Tanishka Kalbhairav (KAR) 3-1 (12-10,11-8,6-11,12-10).
– Youth Boys (U-13): Sahil Rawat (PSPB A) bt Aditya Das (BEN A) 3-0 (11-3, 11-8, 11-7).
– Semifinal Youth Girls (U-13): Riana Bhoota (MAHA A) bt Shreya Dhar (BEN B) 3-2 (11-9,11-8,7-11,7-11,11-7); M Ananya (TN) bt Ahona Ray (BEN A) 3-0 (11-6,11-8,11-4).