Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Muscat: Talented Omani Ahmed Al Riyami played brilliant table tennis to capture the boys under-13 singles title at the Villerroy & Boch +Hansgrohe Open Table Tennis Tournament organised by the Indian Social Club (ISC).
In a thrilling final, ten-year-old Ahmed overcame emotion mid-way through the match and recovered to script a brilliant 14-12, 11-6, 11-13, 5-11, 11-5, 11-7 win over Mayank Mehta.
Emotion got the better of Ahmed who, after leading 3-0, found himself unable to counter the brilliant onslaught of Mayank who saved two game points before pulling back the third game for two games-all.
Mayank was at his brilliant best when he raced to a 5-1 lead and did not look back to win the fourth game convincingly for two-games all.
Ahmed recovered his composure and won the fifth game for a 3-2 lead in the best of seven-games-final.
In the sixth game, Ahmed rallied from 3-6 down to take a 9-6 lead and made no mistake on match point which he converted to capture the title.
Imran Ahmed caused a major upset when he upset fancied Marconi Leonardo in the second round of the men’s singles.
In a closely contested and thrilling match, Imran rallied from a game down to stun Marconi in four games 10-12, 11-6, 11-7, 11-8.
In another second round men’s singles match, talented teenager Shounak Kelkar held his nerves to edge past Mohamed Abdel Raheem in five games 7-11, 11-4, 13-11, 6-11, 14-12 and Deepak Kumar Singh prevailed over Prashant T.V. 11-6, 11-5, 11-7.
