Host Gujarat won the Men’s gold while West Bengal’s women team emerged supreme in the Table Tennis event of the National Games 2022. Both teams won silver in the previous edition of the Games held in Kerala in 2015.
The Table Tennis event of the National Games 2022 took place at PDDU Indoor Stadium, Surat ahead of the official start of the National Games to ensure the presence of Achanta Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan and Manika Batra who will compete at the World Table Tennis Championships starting next week.
Gujarat, the top seed in the tournament, won all its group matches and knockouts in 3-0 fashion. In the final, they put up a top-class performance defeating Delhi 3-0. Going into the final, the only change they made was that Manav Thakkar took captain Harmeet Desai’s place in the first singles match.
Thakkar raced past Sudhanshu Grover 11-3, 13-11, 14-12 to give Gujarat a 1-0 lead. In the second rubber, Harmeet Desai proved too strong for 17-year-old Payas Jain in his flawless victory of 11-7, 11-3, 12-10. Manush Shah then defeated Yashansh Malik 11-4, 11-9, 11-4 in the third match.
In the women’s summit clash, Maharashtra made a slight change to their line-up, giving Diya Chitale to play the third singles and Swastika Ghosh to take the top spot.
But Bengal’s Ayhika Mukherjee won easily against Ghosh 11-3, 11-5, 11-3 to give 1-0 lead to his team. In the second tie, Reeth Rishya Tennison beat veteran Sutirtha Mukherjee 9-11, 11-13, 9-11 to make it 1-1. In the crucial third match, 38-year-old Mouma Das brought in all her experience to beat youngster Diya Chitale. Mouma saved two match points in the fourth game to script a five-game win over Chitale. Then Sutirtha Mukherjee rectified her faults of the first match to win against Swastika in the fourth tie.
The results
Men: Gujarat beat Delhi 3-0 (Manav Thakkar beat Sudhanshu Grover 11-3, 13-11, 14-12; Harmeet Desai beat Payas Jain 11-7, 11-3, 12-10; Manush Shah beat Yashansh Malik 11-4, 11-9, 11-4).
Women: West Bengal beat Maharashtra 3-1 (Ayhika Mukherjee beat Swastika Ghosh 11-3, 11-5, 11-3; Sutirtha Mukherjee lost to Reeth Rishya 9-11, 11-13, 9-11; Mouma Das beat Diya Chitale 6-11, 16-14, 10-12, 14-12, 11-6; SutirthaMukherjee beat Swastika Ghosh 11-4, 11-13, 11-9, 10-12, 11-6).
