National Ranking Table tennis: Preyesh, Suhana win U-17 titles

Tamil Nadu table tennis player Preyesh Raj Suresh won the Youth U-17 boys title, while Suhana Saini of Haryana won the Youth U-17 girls title at the National Ranking North Zone Table Tennis Championships in Mohali on Tuesday.

Suresh, who had clawed his way to the final, struck form in the title match to beat the unseeded Shankhadip Das 4-0.

Das, who had been in immaculate touch before the final, found it hard right from the word go. He put up some resistance in the second and third games, but not enough to stop the Tamil Nadu left-hander, who served and finished his points with precision.

In the girls category, Suhana, who claimed her maiden U-19 title last week, calmly went about her business against Tamil Nadu’s Kavyashree Baskar.

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As sub-junior rivals, both Suhana and Kavyashree have had interesting match-ups in the past. But Suhana's rise has been phenomenal and her form is great right now with her winning three international titles recently.

Though Kavyashree took the lead, the Haryana table tennis player came back strongly to restore parity. The TN girl then went ahead 2-1 but Suhana, by now used to fightbacks, finished the next three games to add another piece of silverware to her collection.

Contrasting semi-final wins for table tennis champions

The two top seeds won their semi-finals in contrasting styles. Preyesh struggled against fifth seed Ankur Bhattacharjee before winning 4-3, while Suhana dropped one extended game before wrapping up the win over Maharashtra’s Risha Mirchandani.

The unseeded Bengal table tennis player Shankhadip Das had stroked his way into the final, beating third seed Divyansh Srivastava from UP 4-1.

Das had earlier accounted for second seed Aadarsh Om Chetri from Delhi 4-2.

Preyesh, a favorite to win the title, had struggled at the start and fell behind 3-2 to Bhattacharjee. Even his reliable service seemed to have deserted the Tamil Nadu boy.

Nevertheless, normalcy returned soon after. In the sixth game, Preyesh did what he does best. He served and returned well, and used his potent backhand to score maximum points.

The Tamil Nadu table tennis player was able to wear his opponent out, forcing him to commit errors. In the decider, it became a cakewalk for Preyesh.

Suhana, by contrast, won her match comfortably. Although she did concede the second game to her Maharashtrian rival when the latter managed to stretch her, the Haryana table tennis player had a firm grip on the duel the whole match which she never net go.