North Zone Table Tennis championships: Abhinand, Jennifer emerge champions

Tamil Nadu table tennis player P.B. Abhinand and Maharashtra paddler Jennifer Varghese emerged as champions at the National Ranking North Zone Table Tennis Championships on Tuesday (October 26). Abhinand won the youth U-15 boys event while Jennifer took home first place in the youth U-15 girls event.

Jennifer defeated Sandika Bhattacharjee of West Bengal 4-2 and Abhinand followed suit with an identical scoreline to beat statemate Balamurugan Muthu.

Abhinand opened well to falter, allowing Balamurugan a comfortable recovery. However, he could not sustain the momentum amidst a consistent onslaught from Abhinand, and, despite his brave efforts, Balamurugan ended up as the runner-up.

Abhinand’s labored wins in the fifth and sixth games on extended points flipped the fortunes in his favor as he came away with a victory.

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

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Meanwhile, Jennifer, the Cadet Nationals champion in 2019, made a bright opening against second seed Sandika Bhattacharjee. However, the West Bengal table tennis player staged a nice comeback to lead 2-1.

Undeterred, the lanky Maharashtra table tennis player fought well to thwart the initial threat from her opponent, winning the next three games. Interestingly, she took the fourth game on extended points.

The fourth game, in fact, gave Jennifer some much-needed confidence and brought some sanity to the haphazard game plan she dished out in the previous two games.

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Champions have it easy in semi-finals of North Zone Table Tennis Championships

In the semi-finals, eventual champion Abhinand knocked the stuffing out of fourth-seed Kushal Chopda to enter the final. The Maharashtra boy resisted and even stretched his opponent in three games. However, the Tamil Nadu table tennis player emerged as a clear winner.

Balamurugan, on the other hand, took a 2-0 lead only to drop the next game against statemate Nikkhil Menon. But the latter could not stop Balamurugan from running away with the match.

In the girls' section, top-seed Hansini bowed out when fourth-seed Jennifer Varghese outplayed her to win 4-1. The Tamil Nadu table tennis player was visibly hampered and could not come to terms with Jennifer’s attacking approach. Hansini did take a game off her rival, but it was too little and too late.

Second seed Sandika Bhattacharjee showed character to take the last two games on her way to the final after trailing 3-2. Sayani Panda, representing the National Center of Excellence, was excellent and had a distinct advantage.

But Sandika, infusing intensity in the sixth game, won with ease. The decider later was a mere formality.

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