Weakened by viral fever, he was down by three sets in the cadet boys’ final. Preyesh Suresh Raj clawed his way back from the brink to turn the tables on Tamil Nadu teammate Tarun Shanmugham in the 11Even Sports National Ranking (South Zone) table tennis championships that concluded at the Visakhapatnam Port Trust-Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadium here on Tuesday.
Clinching his fourth National-ranking title on the trot, after Chandigarh, Indore and Rajkot, the 10-year old from the Medimix–SDAT-Chandra Academy, Chennai, so used to winning ways, couldn’t quite reconcile himself to the role of underdog.
“His adapatability to all situations is his strength. Above all he knows what to do,” said his mentor and former National champion V. Chandrashekar.
“Preyesh played some crucial points purely by instinct but being a champion, he can come back into the game,” noted the legend who spreads success through his trainees.
All praise for the venue and the efficient conduct of the just concluded event, Chandrashekar was pleasantly surprised to find such an arena in the port city.
The turning point came perhaps in the fifth game, when Preyesh retrieved a string of long range smashes and everything Shanmugham hurled at him in the battle of left-handers. Nonchalant at times and looking absolutely forlorn when down, his reading of the sequences was phenomenal, even if he seemed at times stationary and rooted to the spot.
The sub-junior boys’ final was again between southpaws, more evenly contested though. Amidst rapid fire returns from two fiercely attacking players, Shreyaans Goyal’s interception of smashes bouncing higher than himself would have done more than a bit for his morale in defeating Chinmaya Somaiya.
The results:
Boys: Sub-juniors: Final: Shreyaans Goyal (Del) bt Chinmaya Somaiya (PSPBA) 11-8, 5-11, 11-6, 12-10, 12-14, 20-18. Semifinals: Shreyaans bt Payas Jain (Del) 11-9, 11-7, 11-8, 13-1, Chinmaya bt Deepit Patil (Mah) 6-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-3, 11-7.
Cadets: Final: Preyesh Suresh Raj (TN) bt Tarun Shanmugham (TN) 11-3, 10-12, 1-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-8; Semifinals: Preyesh bt Divyansh Srivastava (UP) 16-14, 11-5, 11-13, 12-10, Tarun bt Akash J. Mane (Kar) 11-9, 11-7, 11-5.
Girls: Sub-juniors: Final: Swastika Ghosh (Mah) bt Vanshika Bhargava (Del) 12-10, 11-6, 13-11, 11-9. Semifinals: Swastika bt Poymantee Baisya (WB) 8-11, 11-8, 13-11, 11-7, 5-11, 12-10, Vanshika bt Kajol Ramjali (AP) 11-5, 11-4, 11-3, 15-13.
Cadets: Final: Kavyashree Bhaskar (TN) bt Suhana Saini (Har) 11-8,12-10, 12-10, 7-11, 5-11, 11-7. Semifinals: Suhana bt Prithioki Chakraborti (WB) 11-6, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8, Kavyashree bt Lakshita Narang (Del) 11-6, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8.
