Impressive Mumbai girl Diya wins maiden women’s crown

by Suman Gupta

Indore, January : Maharashtra’s Diya Chitale in impressive fashion announced her arrival on the big stage. The 18-year-old Mumbai-based TSTTA paddler Diya took in her stride the top two ranked Indian players and went on to clinch the women’s singles crown in the UTT National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Abhay Prashal recently.

In the final, contested between attacking players, the fifth-seeded Diya playing confidently outshone Indian number 2 and second-seeded Reeth Rishya of PSPB by pulling off a close 4-3 win in the best-of-7-game match, of fluctuating fortunes, to secure her maiden success in the women’s circuit.

The summit clash witnessed a tense tussle for supremacy as there was no quarter given and none asked and the match scores went level-pegging till 3-all. In the decider, Diya showed steely nerves and cool composure to take control of the game which she won quite comfortably to secure a 7-11, 11-7, 8-11, 12-10, 7-11, 12-11, and 11-8 verdict and emerge worthy champion.

Earlier, in the penultimate round, the energetic Diya showed plenty of resilience and solid fighting qualities as she recovered from the brink of defeat to turn the tables on India’s number one ranked paddler and top-seeded Sreeja Akula of RBI (Reserve Bank of India) in seven well-contested games 4-3.

Sreeja played aggressively and started positively against her younger opponent Diya and raced to a 3-1 lead. But, the brave and gutsy Mumbai teenager Diya not prepared to give up without putting up a fight, gradually and confidently clawed her way back and went on to comfortably win the remaining three games to snatch a satisfying come-from-behind 8-11, 11-8, 8-11, 10-12, 11-7, 11-3, and 11-4 victory and a passage to the final.

In the other semi-final, Reeth got the better of Delhi’s Lakshita Narang 4-2 (11-6, 11-7, 9-11, 10-12, 11-7, and 11-3).

Meanwhile, Harmeet Desai defeated Manush Shah 4-3 in a thrilling final to lift the men’s singles trophy. For Manush this was his second title-winning effort this season.

However, Maharashtra’s Deepit Patil crashed at the final hurdle losing to Ankur Bhattacharjee of West Bengal in six games. Ankur (Ben) defeated the TSTTA, Mumbai paddler 11-5, 3-11, 11-5, 12-10, 4-11, and 11-9.

Results – Men single (Final): Harmeet Desai (PSPB) bt Manush Shah (Guj) 11-9, 11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-5. Semi-finals: Manush Shah bt Ronit Bhanja (AAI) 11-9, 11-5, 11-8, 5-11, 12-10; Harmeet Desai bt FRS Snehit (Telg) 8-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-7, 11-8.

Women singles (Final): Diya Chitale (Mah) bt Reeth Rishya (PSPB) 7-11, 11-7, 8-11, 12-10, 7-11, 12-11, 11-8. Semi-finals: Diya Chitale bt Sreeja Akula (RBI) 8-11, 11-8, 8-11, 10-12, 11-7, 11-3, 11-4; Reeth Rishya bt Lakshita Narang (Del) 11-6, 11-7, 9-11, 10-12, 11-7, 11-3.

Youth Boys U-19 (Final): Ankur Bhattacharjee (Ben) bt Deepit R Patil (Mah) 11-5, 3-11, 11-5, 12-10, 4-11, 11-9. Semi-finals: Deepit Patil bt Payas Jain (Del) 2-11, 14-12, 11-13, 11-5, 7-11, 11-5, 11-6; Ankur Bhattacharjee bt Yashansh Malik (Del) 9-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-3, 11-9, 5-11, 11-5.

Youth Girls U-19 (Final): Suhana Saini (Har) bt Nithyashree Mani (TTTA) 11-5, 18-16, 4-11, 11-8, 11-7. Semi-finals: Nithyashree Mani bt Yashaswini Ghorpade (Kar) 11-9, 12-10, 7-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-7; Suhana Saini bt Anargaya Manjunath (Kar) 12-10, 11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 7-11, 11-8.