Anirban, Payal win Junior crowns; second seed Pooja out

AHMEDABAD: Airport Authority of India's (AAI) Sereha Jacob had everything going for her until she faltered after two deuces in the decider of the junior girls final as she went down to Maharashtra's Payal Bohra 3-4 in the Indian Oil National Ranking (West Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Kutch District Table Tennis Association (KDTTA) indoor stadium here on Thursday night.
In the junior boys final, it was West Bengal's Anirban Ghosh who defeated PSPBA's Manav Thakkar 4-1.The boy from Surat found it tough as Anirban had shed all his self-doubts to come into his own. The left-handed Payal was on Cloud Nine after equaling the score in the sixth game even as Sereha had a nice rhythm going for her.
Unfortunately for the AAI girl, who had a better feet movement and used her blocks and backhand to perfection, it came as a big shock when she let Payal off the hook in the sixth as well as in the decider. In fact, the latter was unable to keep the ball on the table and that told a sorry state for the Maharashtra girl who had played brilliantly so far.
Payal, the eventual winner, was able to withstand pressure in the decider. On the other hand, Sereha had to only wait for her opponent to commit mistakes which she cashed in on initially. But Payal grabbed the chances that came her way with both hands to outwit Sereha to receive the winner's purse of Rs. 10,000 while runner-up Sereha got Rs. 5,000.
Anirban had come into his groove after a long time. It was reflecting in the final against Manav. What clinched the issue in Anirban's favour was that he was able to play both defensively whenever the occasion demanded and also attack as is his wont. Manav, generally an attacking player, was somewhat off colour and was unable to pick those spin-imparted strokes from Anirban, who got the cash prize of Rs. 12,000. Manav had to be satisfied with half the prize money.
Pooja ousted After top-seed Poulomi Ghatak's exit on Thursday, it was the turn of No. 2 seed Pooja Sahasrabudhe to go out in the women's singles quarterfinals. The PSPB girl, running a bad patch here, lost to Ankita Das 2-4. In fact, there was a time Pooja was out in the dumps losing three straight games to Ankita.
But her fighting qualities came to the fore when she recovered to take the next two games at 11-9 and 12-10 to give some jitters to Ankita. But the girl from Siliguri made a lot of amends in the next, though extended a bit, to win it and the match. In the first quarterfinal in the afternoon, PSPB's Suthirtha Mukherjee had to make a lot of ground to beat qualifier Charvi Kawle of Maharashtra, who had ousted Poulomi yesterday.
Charvi was the odd player out in a PSPB bunch in the quarterfinals. Suthirtha's day was made when, after being 1-3 down, fought well to win all good points and level the score. In the decider, again Charvi goofed up with a 7-3 and 8-4 lead as it was creditable for Suthirtha to have won crucial points to wrap up the last game after several deuces.
No. 3 seed Mouma Das, as usual, was in her up-and-down zone before regrouping herself to beat Madhurika Patkar. Mouma won three straight games to sew it up while Manika Batra had to hardly sweat it out against Mousumi Paul as the girl from Delhi won in straight games.