Delhi’s Yashansh Malik defeated Deepit Rajesh Patil of Maharashtra 4-2 to enter the final of the Youth Boys singles in the UTT National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Howrah Indoor Stadium in Howrah on Wednesday.
Malik would now take on Jeet Chandra in the final on Thursday as the Haryana lad enjoyed a walkover from Delhi’s Payas Jain who, after spending a couple of tense days, left for Delhi to catch the flight to Poland to participate in the World Cadet Challenge.
With uncertainty lingering on Jain’s visa to Poland, his mindset was understandable, especially after compatriot Yashaswini Ghorpade had left the Indian shores a couple of days before for the vital training before the Cadet Challenge event, beginning from Saturday at Wladyslawoo.
Jain had booked his slot after winning a silver medal at Ulaanbaatar during the Asian Junior championships. Yet, the third seed paddler kept himself in the reckoning here and emphatically beat Rajasthan’s Anukram Jain 4-0 to enter the semi-finals before handing over the walkover.
But Yashansh Malik ensured he made up for his teammate when he defeated Deepit Patil in a tense game as both matched each other’s strokes. Yet the lanky Maharashtra boy made some crucial errors which helped the Delhi boy’s cause immensely, especially in the fourth game to put Yashansh 3-1 up. Though he lost the next game, he stopped his Maharashtra rival two points short to secure his spot in the final.
Earlier, Deepit upset top-seed Manush Shah 4-3 in a grueling quarter-final. The Gujarat left-hander, the favourite to win the title, made a fantastic comeback after trailing 0-3 before levelling scores. But Deepit made most of his opponent’s mistakes in the decider to romp home winners.
In the semi-finals, top-seeded Prapti Sen sent Kaushani Nath packing with a 4-1 verdict and Moumita Datta scored a similar win over Shruti to enter the finals. In the quarter-finals, Prapti had no inhibitions about her game plan when she beat Premangi Ghosh of the Railways. Moumita won rather easily against Surbhi Patwari of West Bengal (4-1) while Kaushani Nath, found a tough opponent in Tamil Nadu’s Yashini Sivasankar.
The latter, who was comfortably placed at 3-1 squandered the advantage to let Kaushani take the initiative in the last three games to reach the semis. In the fourth quarter-final, left-handed Shruti Amrute of Railways accounted for Tamil Nadu’s Selenadeepti Selvakumar 4-3 after a well-fought match.
Results:
Youth Boys: Semi-final: Yashansh Malik (Del) bt Deepit R Patil (Mah) 11-6, 11-4, 8-11, 11-2, 9-11, 11-9; Jeet Chandra (Har) w/o Payas Jain (Del).
Quarter-finals: Deepit R Patil bt Manush Shah (Guj) 11-9, 11-5, 11-4, 9-11, 9-11, 2-11,11-5; Yashansh Malik bt Chinmaya Somaiya (Mah) 11-7, 6-11, 11-9, 3-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-8; Payas Jain bt Anukram Jain (Raj) 11-9, 11-8, 11-4, 11-5; Jeet Chandra bt Akash Pal (WB) 21-19, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7.
Youth Girls: Semi-final: Moumita Datta (Rlys) bt Shruti Amrute (Rlys) 11-9, 15-13, 11-2, 8-11, 11-3; Prapti Sen (WB) bt Kaushani Nath (Rlys) 9-11, 11-4, 11-3, 11-7, 11-5.
Quarter-finals: Prapti Sen bt Premangi Ghosh (Rlys) 13-11, 11-7, 12-10, 11-7; Kaushani Nath bt Yashini Sivasankar (TN) 11-13, 11-7, 7-11, 6-11, 11-1, 11-8, 11-9; Moumita Datta bt Surbhi Patwari (WB) 12-10, 11-2, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7; Shruti Amrute bt Selenadeepthi Selvakumar (TN) 11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 4-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-8.
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