The Hindu : Sport / Table Tennis : Treble for Madhurika

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 19, 2004

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Sport - Table Tennis

Treble for Madhurika

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 18. Favourite Madhurika Patkar claimed a treble as India expectedly completed a golden sweep of the individual medals in the South Asian table tennis championship at the NDMC Indoor Stadium here on Sunday.

Having won the doubles title on Saturday and the mixed doubles this afternoon, Madhurika stopped unseeded K. Shamini 11-7, 11-7, 11-8, 7-11, 4-11, 11-9 in 31 minutes.

In the boys final, fourth seed R. Abhishek upstaged second seed Subhadip Das 11-9, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9 and proved that defensive players, too, can be winners.

Madhurika capitalised on Shamini's nerves to win the final. Shamini, playing her first big final, was too tentative to play her natural game. Though she came back from 0-3 to make it 2-3 and even led 7-5 in the sixth game, Shamini did not look confident of taking it away from the bespectacled Madhurika. The champion, whose confidence was in sharp contrast to her rival's apprehensive approach, attacked more and got the desired result. At the same time, Shamini committed too many unforced errors on the big points and eventually let Madhurika escape to victory.

Das had very little to complain after blowing up leads of 5-1 in the first two games and 8-4 in the fifth against Abhishek. Das repeatedly paid the penalty for playing to Abhishek's game plan on the bigger points. Abhishek, on the other hand, chopped everything back on the table and played on the patience of his rival.

The Tamil Nadu boy not only forced errors from Das but also came up with some timely finishing shots to end some long rallies. With an exasperated Das lacking the belief to win, Abhishek won seven of the last eight points to come out a deserving winner.

Earlier, the singles finals were delayed by 90 minutes in an effort to accommodate the late arrival of the Table Tennis Federation of India President Ajay Kumar Chautala. Despite the delay, Mr. Chautala did not make it. Eventually, it was his son Dushyant who gave away the prizes.

Correction: On Saturday, Madhurika and S. Sangeetha won the girls doubles title and not as reported in these columns. The error is regretted.

The results: Boys: singles: final: R. Abhishek bt Subhadip Das 11-9, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9. Semifinals: Abhishek bt Sanil Shetty 5-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-13, 11-5, 11-2; Das bt Aniket Koparkar 11-8, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-4.

Girls: singles: final: Madhurika Patkar bt K. Shamini 11-7, 11-7, 11-8, 7-11, 4-11, 11-9. Semifinals: Madhurika bt Salankara Mahalanobish 10-12, 11-6, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6, 11-4; Shamini bt Sayantika Kundu 11-9, 11-6, 5-11, 11-7, 11-9.

Mixed doubles: final: Arunava Ganguly and Madhurika Patkar bt Devesh Karia and Ashlesha Bodas 11-3, 11-9, 8-11, 11-4. Semifinals: Ganguly and Patkar bt Soumyajit Sarkar and S. Sangeetha 11-8, 13-11, 12-10; Karia and Bodas bt R. Abhishek and K. Shamini 11-9, 12-10, 8-11, 9-11, 11-4.

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