74th National Table Tennis: Soumyajit Ghosh becomes youngest champion

India’s men’s singles paddler Soumyajit Ghosh emerged as the youngest national champion after he defeated six-times champions and India’s highest ranked Achanta Sharath Kamal in the final showdown at the 74th National Table Tennis Championship in Raipur.

The 19-year-old prevailed over Kamal 3-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-7) to bag the Maharaja Pitampura Cup along with a prize money of Rs 2.30 lakh.

Soumyajit started on a rusty note losing the opening game 3-11 before levelling things with an impressive second game winning it at 11-5.

Kamal seized the initiative winning the third game to go up 2-1. From there on it was Soumyajit all the way as he not only made it 2-2 but went on to win the next two games to win the contest 4-2.

Meanwhile, in the women’s singles final, K Shamini exacted sweet revenge for her last year’s defeat to Poulomi Ghatak with a clinical 4-1 win (14-12, 11-9, 9-11, 11-4, 11-8).

Shamini scored a comfortable win over Poulomi Ghatak to grab a prize money of Rs 1.45 lakh along with the Travancore Cup.

Results:

Men (Final): Soumyajit Ghosh (Pet) bt A. Sharath Kamal (Pet) 4-2; (Semifinals): A. Sharath Kamal bt Sanil Shetty 4-0, Soumyajit Ghosh bt A. Amal Raj 4-1.

Women (Final): K. Shamini (Pet) bt Poulomi Ghatak (Pet) 4-1; (Semifinals): Poulomi Ghatak bt Neha Aggarwal 4-3, K. Shamini bt Ankita Das 4-3.

Men doubles (Final): Sourav Chakraborty and G. Sathiyan (Pet) bt Aman Balgu and Noel Pinto (Rlys) 11-5, 11-5, 12-10.

Women doubles (Final): K. Spoorthy and Nikhat Banu (AP) bt Madhurika Patkar and Pooja Sahasrabudhe (Pet) 14-12, 3-11, 11-7, 11-5.

Mixed doubles (Final): Utkarsh Gupta and Manika Batra (Del) bt Harmeet Desai and Frenaz Chipia (Guj) 11-8, 11-5, 11-6.