Commonwealth Games gold medallist paddlers Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Sreeju Akula bagged the Men’s and the Women’s title at the Senior National Table Tennis Championships in Jammu.
Akula who has been in sensational form off late defeated another National Champion in Sutirtha Mukherjee by 4-2 to win the finals and celebrated her consecutive crown at the National level. The final took place at the Gymnasium Hall of the Jammu University and Akula played with a lot of aggression but never went overboard with it. She understands the balance of both words and plays with a sense of calmness and confidence and that makes her one of India’s best paddlers right now.
Meanwhile Sathiyan Gnanasekaran won his second National title at the 84 Inter State Senior National Table Tennis Championship where he tirumphed. He defeated Harmeet Desai in the finals to win his first National title since 2021.
India table tennis legend and biggest icon Achanta Sharath Kamal skipped the National championships due to an injury. He has already won the title 10-times but still he shows massive passion towards the sport and always plays with a lot of intent. While he is at his career’s twilight Sharath Kamal just keeps on impressing people with his deft touches and swift movements and judgements to attack or defence.
Whereas it was shocking to see top seeded women’s singles paddler Manika Batra was defeated Ayhika Mukherjee in the round 16 clash by 4-2. Batra never looked threatening as Ayhika played with a lot of passion and intent to churn out a famous win.
However her journey came to an end as she bowed out of the competition after losing to Sutirtha in the women’s singles semifinals by 4-0. In the other semifinals, Akula defeated Archana Kamath 4-2 to progress to the finals.
In the men’s singles semifinals Sathiyan had a tricky day at the office as he defeated Manav Thakkar whereas the other semifinals in this category saw Harmeet Desai play an evetremely close excounter against Manush Shah. Although, Desai somehow managed to find his way past Shah and defeated him by 4-3 scoreline.
The men’s doubles saw paddlers Jeet Chandra and Ankur Bhattacharjee prevail as they got the better of Vansh Singhal and Mohammed Ali to be crown champions. Akula completed her double at the Nationals when she partnered Diya Chitale to beat Swastika Ghosh and Shruti Amrute 3-1 and claimed the gold medal.
Lastly Manav Thakkar and Archana Kamath prevailed over Ankur Bhattacharjee and Moumita Datta with a scoreline of 3-0. The special duo of Manav and Archana had notably defeated the star Indian pairing of Sathiyan and Batra 3-0 in an earlier round.
