Tuesday 16 / April / 2024
Muscat: Shounak Kelkar captured the boys under-15 singles title at the Indian Social Club-organised and Al Amana Building Materials Company-sponsired Annual Table Tennis Tournament.
In a thrilling final, the top seeded Shounak faced some resistance before overcoming third seed Allan Thiyagaseelan 11-7, 9-11, 11-4, 11-13, 11-9 11-3.
Left-handed Shounak adopted an offensive ploy and looked hasty in finishing the rally. Allan pulled back the second game and after a keen struggle won the fourth game to level at two-games-all in the best of seven-games-final.
Allan maintained pressure on Shounak who missed a number of forehand smashes but recovered to win the fifth game and wrapped up the sixth comfortably to win the title.
Shounak also made it to the final of the boys under-17 singles event when he downed Sanskar Dubey 11-9, 11-6, 8-11, 11-1, 11-8.
In the final, Shounak will take on Yash Tanna who had to muster his resources to stave off the spirited challenge of R. Vignesh in the second semifinal. Yash defeated Vignesh 11-5, 13-11, 13-11, 9-11, 11-5.
Arundhati Ramesh put in a gritty display and staged a remarkable fightback to rally from three games down to turn the table on Surabhi Salian in the senior Girls semifinal.
Surabhi won the first three games and had her chances to wrap up the match in the deciding game but Arundhati pulled the rug from under her.
Arundhati rallied from three games down to win the cliffhanger 5-11, 7-11, 4-11, 11-9, 11-7, 13-11, 13-11. In the second semi final, Manvi Sarawanan defeated Sneha Ganesh 11-5, 11-4, 11-8, 16-14.
