Ishaan claims double crown

Gandhidham, Aug.6: Local boy and top seed Ishaan Hingorani completed a grand double when he bagged Youth Boys and Men’s title in span of 90 minutes at the GCCI 3rd Gujarat State Ranking Table Tennis tournament 2019 here at KDTTA Sports Complex on Tuesday. Ishaan beat Chitrax Bhatt of Ahmedabad and Kaushal Bhatt of Bhavnagar in Men’s and Youth Boys’ final respectively.

Kausha Bhairapure of Ahmedabad was crowned Youth Girls’ champion.

Ishaan, in Men’s final, looked bit under pressure and made a few mistakes. His third ball attack was weak which allowed Chitrax to dominate the first game. As they were playing for second time in two days, Chitrax had done his homework. His backhand switch left Ishaan perplexed.

However, Ishaan recovered in time and was on equal terms. With two games all, in fifth game, he shifted gears and went all attack. “I was surprised by his game today, he played better. But I was determined to win. I guess it changed in fifth game when I scored more points on down the line slow balls,” said Ishaan after a remarkable 9-11 11-8 11-6 8-11 11-8 11-9 win.

Ishaan won Rs10500 for his double crown winning Men’s and Youth Boys’ title. Chitrax won cash prize Rs5000 for his runner-up position.

Earlier in the afternoon, Ishaan faced Kaushal Bhatt of Bhavnagar in the Youth Boys final. It was second time in two hours they clashed. Ishaan had defeated Kaushal in the Men’s semifinal.

It was no different in Youth Boys title round. Ishaan played safe game, tried not to experiment. He just kept ball on the table and allowed Kaushal to make mistakes, which the latter did.

In the second game, Kaushal had an opportunity to equalise at 10-8 but Ishaan kept pressure with some attacking forehand shots, which Kaushal either played in net or flew out of the table. Kaushal was also guilty of hurrying on shots and eventually registering unforced errors losing 10-12. He did win the third but Ishaan with his natural and composed game romped home 11-9 12-10 9-11 11-9 11-6.

Kaushal won Rs2500 for finishing runners-up in Youth Boys’ section.

Youth Girls final was between Kausha Bhairapure of Ahmedabad and Surat’s Filzahfatema Kadri. The Surti saved three match points but couldn’t stop the Amdavadi from winning gold medal. Filzah looked nowhere near her best and most of her backhand shots went into net.

“She was comfortable in long balls, so I changed the strategy and kept it either half-long or short. That might be the reason for her netting a few returns. And when Filzah tried backhand top-spin I just tabbed it and engaged her in rallies, played on her patience,” said Kausha after recording easy 11-8 11-6 11-6 12-10 victory.

Kausha walked away with cash prize of Rs3000 while Filzahfatema received Rs2000.

Dignitaries for the today’s award ceremony were Gandhidham Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Shri Dinesh Gupta, TTFI Vice-President and Honorary secretary GSTTA Shri Haresh Sangtani and founder members KDTTA Shri Bhiku Agarwal, Shri DK Agarwal, Ms Tulsi Sujan, Shri Sunil Menon, Shri Hari Pillai, Shri Manish Hingorani, Shri Mahesh Hingorani, Shri Kamal Asnani and Shri Prashant Buch.

Remaining Cadet, Sub Junior and Junior finals will be played tomorrow 3:00 pm onwards.

Other results :

Men’s

SEMI-FINALS Ishaan Hingorani (Kch) bt Kaushal Bhatt (Bvn) 11-9 7-11 11-8 11-7 10-12 11-7 Chitrax Bhatt (Ahm) bt Jignesh Jaiswal (Bvn) 11-6 retire

YOUTH GIRLS

QUARTERS :

Filzahfatema Kadri (Srt) bt Tanya Purohit (Srt) 11-7 15-13 9-11 11-5 11-7 Prarthna Parmar (Bvn) bt Hetvi Raval (Bvn) 11-7 11-9 11-4 11-5 Kausha Bhairapure (ahm) bt Charmi Patel (Bvn) 11-2 9-11 11-9 12-10 9-11 8-11 11-4 Namna Jaiswal (Bvn) bt Naitri Dave (Bvn) 7-11 12-10 11-5 11-3 11-4

SEMI-FINALS

Kausha Bhairapure (ahm) bt Namna Jaiswal (Bvn) 10-12 8-11 11-4 11-1 11-5 11-2 Filzahfatema Kadri (Srt) bt Prarthna Parmar (Bvn) 3-11 11-5 13-11 12-10 13-15 11-9

YOUTH BOYS

QUARTER-FINALS:

Ishaan Hingorani (Kch) bt Chitrax Bhatt (Ahm) 9-11 13-11 11-5 11-7 11-2 Harshil Kothari (Bvn) bt Nutanshu Dayama (Srt) 11-4 7-11 11-4 11-6 11-2 Kaushal Bhatt (Bvn) bt Karanpal Jadeja (Bvn) 9-11 11-4 11-7 11-5 11-3 Dhairya Parmar (Ahm) bt Abhishek Raval (Ahm) 6-11 11-8 11-9 11-2 8-11 11-8

SEMI-FINALS

Kaushal Bhatt (Bvn) bt Harshil Kothari (Bvn) 11-9 5-11 11-8 9-11 11-8 6-11 12-10, Ishaan Hingorani (KCH) bt Dhairya Parmar (Ahm) 11-5 11-8 6-11 8-11 11-9 11-6