The Hindu : Sport : Neha Aggarwal steals the show

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Wednesday, Aug 29, 2007
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Sport

Sport

Neha Aggarwal steals the show

Special Correspondent

— Photo: R.V. Moorthy

CHAMPIONS: Neha Aggarwal and A. Sharath Kamal, who won the women’s and men’s singles titles in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: In just 20 minutes, the 17-year-old Neha Aggarwal announced her arrival in the ‘champions league’ of Indian table tennis. Later, following a 50-minute delay, A. Sharath Kamal proved in quick time that he was indeed the best men’s singles player in the country.

Much before Sharath made his way to the Siri Fort Sports Complex hall after a fruitless two-and-a-half hour wait at the Spanish Embassy and a timely power failure helped him warm up in a hurry in the final session of the all-India inter-institutional table tennis championship, it was Neha who enjoyed the best moment of her budding career so far.

Memorable return

After an eight-month break from domestic competitions, Neha made her return a truly memorable one by racing away with the ladies singles title at the expense of former National champion Mantu Ghosh.

The scoreline of 11-7, 11-9, 11-6, 11-6 completed Neha’s glory and Mantu’s grief much to the surprise of those present. The fourth seeded Mantu, who had vanquished defending champion and top seed Poulomi Ghatak in the semifinal earlier in the day, could not sort out the problems posed by Neha’s backhand returns and gave up rather tamely.

Neha, who used her big forehand as a finishing stroke effectively and consistently against an increasingly exasperated Mantu, showed remarkable maturity on the big points, thanks to the work done with her hypnotherapist Rajan Kukreja. Neha’s first major triumph was worth much more than Rs. 40,000 she got for her remarkable run. Her winning sequence that saw seasoned names like two-time former champion Anindita Chakraborty and National Games champion K. Shamini before Mantu, gave her the much needed self-belief, so important to take bigger strides in times to come. After all, she did not lose a game in the semifinal against the in-form Mansi Bhagwat and reproduced her flawless show in the final.

Superb effort

The day also saw Sharath win his fourth successive title in the championship and collect Rs. 50,000 for his superb display. Sharath needed just 33 minutes to stop an erratic Subhajit Saha in five games in a final which failed to rise up to expectations.

The champion’s backhand worked the smoothest on this day. Not surprisingly, Sharath had won the first two games in 10 minutes. Saha bounced back from 1-4 to snatch the third game after breaking away from seven-all. In the fourth, Sharath blew away a 9-4 lead, saved a game point and went on to win in extended points. In the fifth, Sharath rallied from 2-7 and saved four game points before winning the last three points and the title.

The results: Men’s singles (final): A. Sharath Kamal (Pet) bt Subhajit Saha (Pet) 11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 13-11, 13-11; Semifinals: Sharath bt Anirban Nandi (Rlys) 11-4, 11-9, 11-5, 11-6; Saha bt Pathik Mehta (AI) 11 -7, 5-11, 9-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-7, 11-5.