Howrah, Oct 25 (SocialNews.XYZ) PSPBs Manav Thakkar defeated teammate Harmeet Desai 4-1 to lift the men's singles trophy -- his first this season -- even as West Bengals Krittwika Sinha Roy upset top-seed Sutirtha Mukherjee of Haryana 4-1 for her maiden women singles crown at the UTT National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Howrah Indoor Stadium on Friday.
Manav, after the first extended game, gained a 2-0 lead before dropping the next to Harmeet.
That was when he looked good for a comeback and went into a quick 6-0 lead before conceding the first point to Manav. But then Harmeet made a few mistakes and helped Manav to the extent to getting closer at 5-6. The timeout he took helped Harmeet reach 9-7 and 10-9.
However, on the game point, during one of the fast excellent rallies, Harmeet allowed Manav to deuce and from there the Surat boy went 3-1 up.
In the decider, the drooping shoulders of Harmeet told the real story as Manav went from strength to strength to stop Harmeet, the South Zone winner, well short to take home the winner's trophy.
Earlier Krittwika, who finished runner-up in the Nationals conducted at Cuttack last January played brilliantly to claim her maiden women's singles crown.
In the women's semi-finals, Haryana's Sutirtha Mukherjee played true to her top-seed position and defeated fifth-seed Ayhika Mukherjee 4-1 rather easily, but what was remarkable was Krittwika Sinha Roy's march into the final. The West Bengal qualifier, who ousted second-seed Archana Kamath, downed state-mate Prapti Sen despite her never-say-die attitude, who narrowed down the margin to 3-2.
But in the sixth, Krittwika played really well to upset her rival's rhythm to romp home the winner.
In his attempt to return to the mainstream for the first time, Soumyajit Ghosh showed glimpses of his old self and played with a lot of verve throughout, including in the semi-final.
But the Haryana paddler got tired and despite his experience and might, he could not succeed against the younger legs of Manav Thakkar.
Source: IANS
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