The Hindu : Sport / Table Tennis : Jayita and Soumyajit win titles

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 22, 2005

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Sport - Table Tennis

Jayita and Soumyajit win titles

By Our Sports Reporter

CHENNAI, JAN. 21. Jayita Pushilal (CoE) has a faint resemblance to Poulami Ghatak. Like the National champion, she carries herself well and employs a similar backhand. In an evenly matched sub-junior girls' final of the National sub-junior table tennis championship at the Nehru Indoor Stadium here on Friday, Jayita kept her cool in tight situations just like Poulami to win 4-11, 11-4, 8-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-8, 11-8 against CoE's Shreya Ghosh (Jr).

Soumyajit Ghosh put away the disappointment of being barred from the cadet section (for overage), by scoring an easy victory over Jenil Shah of Gujarat 11-8, 11-6, 11-9, 11-7 and bagged the sub-junior boys' title.

It was Shreya who caught the eye initially in the girls' summit clash. With a deceptive backhand and a punishing forehand, she raced to a 3-2 lead. Jayita levelled at 3-each by some excellent counters and backhand winners. Trailing 5-7 in the seventh game, Shreya took time out, and came back strongly with those deceptive backhand winners. Jayita, however, maintained the lead and her composure to close out the contest on her second match point when a Shreya's backhand went wide.

Gujarat's Jenil Shah looked out of sorts for the most part in the cadet boys' final. He seemed to put up a fight only in the third game. The stout Soumyajit produced winners at will to make the boys' final a one-sided contest.

The lone finalist from Tamil Nadu in the individual section V. Sneha, perhaps, had the best chance of posting a win against a less menacing Nikhat Banu of Andhra Pradesh in the cadet girls' final, but failed to grab the golden opportunity. Overawed by the occasion, Sneha committed a lot of unforced errors in the first two games. She fought back to win the third game. But after losing a close fourth game, Sneha wilted.

Petroleum Sports Board Academy's (Ajmer) Saurav Saha proved that he is a talent worth investing for in the future. Producing fine winners from the back of the table with attractive forehand shots, Saha impressed the small gathering at the Stadium.

The results (finals):

Sub-junior boys: Soumyajit Ghosh (CoE) bt Jenil Shah (Guj) 11-8, 11-6, 11-9, 11-7.

Cadet boys: Saurav Saha (PSPBA) bt Sanmay Paranjape (Mah `A') 11-2, 8-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-3.

Sub-junior girls: Jayita Pushilal (CoE) bt Shreya Ghosh (Jr) 4-11, 11-4, 8-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-8, 11-8.

Cadet girls: Nikhat Banu (AP) bt V. Sneha (TN) 11-4, 11-5, 5-11, 13-11, 11-7.

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