State paddlers shine at national TT meet

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat state's paddlers have put up a very commendable show at the ongoing Sports National Ranking (North Zone) Table Tennis Championships in Chandigarh.
The brightest of them all was the Surat-based paddler Frenaz Chipia who created flutter when she upset the eighth seed Divya Deshpande of PSPB 11-8, 11-7, 6-11, 11-7, 11-7 in the women’s first round of the National Table Tennis Championship played at Punjab University Gymnasium in Chandigarh.Divya has been a regular in the Indian TT team and played at the Commonwealth TT meet which was held in Surat in December 2015.
Meanwhile, boys too shone as Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar booked their semifinal berths in junior boys. In quarters, Manush beat Malik Yashansh of Delhi 11-9, 11-9, 11-13, 5-11, 11-6, 11-5 while Manav thrashed Marathe Aniruddha of Maharasthra 11-8, 11-4, 11-5, 11-7. Manush, the India No. 3 in junior boys, had defeated Soham Bhattarcharya of West Bengal 11-13,11-4,10-12,11-9,11-8 in the quarters.
He was a bit unlucky when he lost in the quarters but another state paddler Ishaan Hingorani had done well to beat Zamliana John of PSPBA 11-7, 11-9, 11-6 in the pre-quarterfinal of the junior boys’ category. However, in quarters, Ishaan lost to India No. 4 Sarthak Sheth of UP. But the highlight of the unseeded Ishaan‘s journey was the major upset he created when he defeated India No. 5 Parth Viramani 11-8,8-11,11-9,9-11,12-10 in second round of junior boys.
Not often does one see state paddlers matching the mighty paddlers from Bengal, Maharashtra and Delhi stroke by stroke.