The Hindu : Sport / Table Tennis : Raman wins battle of veterans

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 01, 2005

Sport

Sport - Table Tennis

Raman wins battle of veterans

By D. Ravi Shankar

S. Raman and Poulomi Ghatak, winners of the senior National table tennis championship. — Photo: Vivek Bendre

PANVEL, JAN. 31. The clock was turned back at the 66th senior National table tennis tournament with two ageing warhorses in S. Raman and Arup Basak fighting out the men's title clash at the Reliance Township of Lodhivali here on Monday. The former came back from a game down to win at 9-11, 11-1, 11-8, 11-7, 7-11, 11-8.

After losing the first game Raman unleashed an array of strokes that left Basak flummoxed. He even ran away with the second winning it 11-1. The third went even till 8-8 when Raman changed gears and bagged it without losing a point after that. Basak regained some prestige winning the fifth to make the match competitive but Raman knew by now the match was his. This was Raman's ninth appearance in a national final and Basak's fourth.

Earlier the duo showed the exit to their younger rivals Sourav Chakraborty and Soumyadeep Roy in classic semifinal matches. Southpaws both, Raman and Sourav belong to different decades. Raman had begun his career when Sourav was still a toddler and had clashed with greats like Kamlesh Mehta, Chetan Baboor, Manmeet Singh and Manjit Dua down to the present crop. Raman showed little signs of his shoulder injury and spun circles around the bemused Sourav. Packing his returns with lots of spin, Raman befuddled Sourav to win the semifinals 4-2.

The highlight of the semifinals was the frequent use of multi-lingual words of encouragement. Japanese, Chinese, Swedish, German and Spanish words such as `chao', `choo', `bhush' and the like were frequently used.

Basak prevails

In the other semifinal, Arup swept to a quick 2-0 lead as Soumyadeep was slow in starting off. The match saw a number of backhand rallies and Arup was relentless in exerting pressure on Soumyadeep. The 32-year-old Basak had to draw on all his experience to eke out a 4-3 win.

The women's final between Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das also turned out to be a cliff-hanger with the Poulomi collapsing and breaking down in a flood of tears after winning. Poulomi started off in blazing style wrapping up the first three games. Mouma battled hard and took the next three games to take the match to the decider.

Earlier, their semifinals ran true to seedings with Poulomi quelling N.R. Indu's challenge while Mouma was in superb touch blanking Nandita Saha in straight games.

The results: Men: Singles: Final (for the Maharaja of Pitapuram Cup): S. Raman (PSPB) bt Arup Basak (PSPB) 9-11, 11-1, 11-8, 11-7, 7-11, 11-8. Semifinals: Raman bt Sourav Chakraborty (RSPB) 11-4, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 8-11, 11-7; Basak bt Soumyadeep Roy (PSPB) 11-4, 11-7, 2-11, 7-11, 11-9, 3-11, 11-8.

Women: Singles: Final (for the Travancore Cup): Poulomi Ghatak (PSPB) bt Mouma Das (PSPB) 11-9, 11-7, 11-6, 8-11, 7-11, 3-11, 12-10. Semifinals: Mouma bt Nandita Saha (PSPB) 11-6, 11-4, 11-9, 11-9; Poulomi bt N.R. Indu (PSPB) 11-8, 12-14, 11-7, 11-6, 12-10.

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