Payas Jain, Diya Chitale claim sub-jr titles

Delhi’s Payas Jain and Maharashtra’s Diya Chitale claimed the season’s opening titles in the sub-junior category of the 11Even Sports national ranking (West Zone) table tennis championships in Rajkot on Tuesday.

In an all-Delhi boys’ final, Payas beat Yashansh Malik 4-1 while Diya brushed aside Anusha Kutumble from Madhya Pradesh 4-2 to clinch her third consecutive girls’ crown.

Payas hit a rhythm straightaway and looked like wrapping it up quickly winning the first two games but conceded the third as he tried to run through the points hurriedly. Payas quickly realised his mistake took the next two to get his hands on the winner’s trophy.

On the other hand, Diya’s blistering forehand shots and clever use of angles helped her score more winners than her MP rival. Whenever Anusha tried to make a comeback, Diya was at it to force her on the back foot.

In a left-handers cadet boys final, Preyesh completed a hat-trick of titles this season beating Tarun Shanmugam 4-0. Preyesh, who showed consistency in the North and Central Zone events earlier, continued his winning ways with an easy win over his state mate, Tarun.

But Kavyashree Baskar, also from Tamil Nadu, upstaged Haryana’s Suhana Saini to deny her a hat-trick of crowns in the girls section with a 4-0 triumph. Suhana had won at Chandigarh and Indore this season.

Kavyashree, who has had a very good season last year, came back to wrest the initiative from the Haryana girl.

After a comfortable 3-0 lead, Kavyashree lost two match points in the fourth when Suhana, with a brilliant fight back, won her first 13-11. Again, in the next, the Haryana youngster saved a match point to put pressure on the Tamil Nadu girl. But it was the sixth, which saw some long rallies, that Suhana showed her real colours, down 1-7 she fought back to 10-9. However, Kavyashree deuced and on her first match point in the game, clinched the title.