Harmeet Desai, Archana Kamath win titles at the UTT National-ranking table tennis tournament

Harmeet Desai and Archana Kamath won the men’s and women’s titles, respectively, at the UTT National-ranking table tennis tournament on Friday, November 24.

Harmeet, the No. 1 seed of the petroleum board, was in all sorts of trouble after losing the first two games against the ninth-seeded Jeet Chandra. However, he made a stupendous comeback to win the match 10-12, 10-12, 11-9, 11-6, 11-6, 11-8.

Harmeet had his share of troubles in the quarters and semis as well. In the quarterfinal, Harmeet won 11-5, 10-12, 11-6, 4-11, 11-6 against Sushanshu Grover.

In the semis, Harmeet got the better of Raj Mondal, winning the match 11-5, 7-11, 14-12, 11-6, 11-5. He looked nervous in the final against Chandra before shifting the pressure back on his opponent.

Back in the 2018 Commonwealth Games that took place in Gold Coast, Australia, he won the gold medal in the team event along with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Sanil Shetty, Anthony Amalraj, and Sharath Kamal.

Desai also won gold in the men’s team event at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games last year.

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Archana Kamath shines in women’s event at UTT National-ranking tournament

Archana Kamath in action (Image Credits: Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images)

Archana Kamath, meanwhile, was brilliant in the UTT National-ranking tournament. She defeated No. 2 seed Ayhika Mukherjee 11-7, 12-10, 11-5, 11-7 in the final. It was a dominating performance from Kamath, who won the match without dropping a single game.

In the semi-final, Kamath beat Kavyashree Baskar 11-8, 12-10, 11-7, 9-11, 9-11, 9-11, 11-5. After taking a 3-0 lead, she went into a slump as Kavyashree made it 3-3, taking the game into the deciding game. Thereafter, Kamath somehow managed to find her composure back to have the last laugh.

Earlier, in the quarterfinals, Kamath defeated Sreeja Akula 4-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-3, 11-8. Akula won the gold medal in the mixed doubles event in the Birmingham Games along with Sharath Kamal. Last year, Kamath was dropped from the Commonwealth Games squad.