Archana-Manav duo triumphs

Bengaluru: Archana Kamath and Manav Thakkar won the mixed doubles title at the Inter-State Senior National Table Tennis Championships in Jammu on Monday. The Petroleum Sports Promotion Board paddlers got the better of Ankur Bhattacharjee and Moumita Datta of West Bengal 11-5, 14-12, 11-3 in the final. In the semifinals, Manav and Archana downed Manush Shah and Sreeja Akula of RBI 11-9, 12-10, 10-12, 11-5.
Archana also won the women’s singles bronze, going down to Sreeja 9-11, 3-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-5, 7-11 in the semifinals.Trailing 0-3, Archana, who had worked her way up from the qualification rounds, went on the attack mode and it paid off as she won the next two games. But her efforts in the sixth failed to fetch the desired results. In the quarterfinals, Archana downed Poymantee Baisya of West Bengal 11-7, 11-3, 12-10, 11-1. Earlier, the Bengaluru paddler had won a bronze in the team event.
Sreeja went on to defend her title, beating Sutirtha Mukherjee of West Bengal 4-2. G Sathiyan claimed his second men’s singles national crown, ousting Harmeet Desai 4-0.
Results (Finals): Men: G Sathiyan (PPB) bt Harmeet Desai (PSPB) 11-9, 11-7, 11-8, 11-5. Doubles: Jeet Chandra / Ankur Bhattacharjee (WB) bt Mohammed Ali / Vansh Singhal (Tel) 11-6, 11-7, 11-6.Women: Final: Sreeja Akula (RBI) bt Sutirtha Mukherjee (WB) 9-11, 14-12, 11-7, 13-11, 6-11, 12-10. Semis: Sreeja bt Archana Kamath (PSPB) 11-9, 11-3, 11-6, 9-11, 5-11, 11-7. Doubles (final): Sreeja / Diya Chitale (RBI) bt Swastika Ghosh / Shruti Amrute (Mah) 11-7, 11-7, 8-11, 14-12. Mixed doubles: Final: Manav Thakkar / Archana Kamath (PSPB) bt Ankur Bhattacharjee / Moumita Datta (WB) 11-5, 14-12, 11-3. Semis: bt Sreeja Akula / Manush Shah (RBI) 11-9, 12-10, 10-12, 11-5. Quarters: bt Anargya Manjunath / Aakash KJ (Kar) 11-6, 11-6, 5-11, 11-9. tnn