Sayali wins second crown

 

 

 

FRESH from her women’s title, Nashik’s Sayali Wani continued her dominant performance as she claimed the girls’ Under-19 title to make it a grand double in the Second State Ranking Table Tennis Tournament organised by Nagpur District Table Tennis Association at RTMNU’s Subhedar Hall on Monday. In the Under-19 boys category, Jash Modi bettered his show and won the title. Modi, left behind the men’s singles title loss and performed well in the U-19 final to take the crown. Sayali, who won a sensational title in the women’s category, also performed commendable by winning the title in the girls' category. In the final, she defeated eighth seed Arya Songaokar 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7. Both players displayed an all-round game.

 

However, Sayali won the deciding game by earning points at crucial moments. In the semi-finals, Wani defeated Sana D’Souza 3-1 while eighth seed Arya ended the challenge of fifth seed Divyanshi Bhowmik 3-0. Modi, of Mumbai’s TST (The Suburban Table Tennis Association), justified his top ranking by defeating Sagar Kasture 11-5, 11-8, 11-13, 12-10, 8-11, 11-6 to emerge U-19 champion. In the deciding game, however, Modi controlled the game with use of his experience and won the battle. In the semis, he defeated Nashik’s Kushal Chopda 3-1 while second seed Kasture defeated local boy Nagpur’s Adi Chitnis 3-2.