Gujarat hopes on Manush at Panchkula Senior National TT Championships

GANDHIDHAM, Feb.19: Gujarat pin hopes on Manush Shah as the UTT 82nd Senior National Table Tennis Championships – 2020 Men’s competition gets underway at Panchkula on Saturday. Considering the Covid19 situation, the Table Tennis Federation of India has organised only singles (individual) – women and men – competition during the ten-day carnival.
Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai will represent Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB).
In the last edition of the Senior National held at Hyderabad, Vadodara-based Manush was instrumental in Gujarat’s podium finish in the team’s event. In the individual event, he made it to the pre-quarters stage where he went down to former champion G Sathiyan of PSPB in a seven-game thriller. Manush, the southpaw, will definitely like to have a better outing and has been working hard.
Manush’s teammates Kaushal Bhatt (Bhavnagar), Dhairya Parmar, Chitrax Bhatt (both Ahmedabad) and Ishaan Hingorani (Kutch) are also raring to go. Ishaan and Chitrax hit the form with Youth and Junior State titles at Gandhidham last month.
Meanwhile, state women’s champion Frenaz Chipia (Surat) won her qualifying round matches to enter the main draw. In the Round of 64 she defeated V Kowshika of Telengana in straight games 15-13, 11-9 11-9 12-10. Surti bowed out in the Round of 32 to eventual champion Manika Batra of PSPB 9-11 11-9 0-11 6-11.
Gujarat State Table Tennis Association president Vipul Mittra, IAS, is expecting good results from players, who had competitive match-practice at State Championships 2020 last month. “Players are in good form and very positive in their approach. This was visible at the Gandhidham meet. With good match practice, we are hopeful of better results at Panchkula,” said Mittra.
Echoing similar sentiments, GSTTA secretary Haresh Sangtani said all boys are young and excited. “It will be testing time for our young boys. They don’t have an experienced but certainly very talented bunch, which has the capability to cause a few upsets,” concluded Sangtani.
Men’s Team:
SHAH MANUSH, BHATT KAUSHAL, PARMAR DHAIRYA, BHATT CHITRAX, ISHAAN HINGORANI
Coach: Bhavin Desai, Mihir Gandhi