Manav Thakkar, Sreeja Akula win UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships

Young Indian table tennis players Manav Thakkar and Sreeja Akula won titles in men and women categories, respectively, at the UTT National-ranking table tennis championship held at the Ramakotaiah Indoor Stadium in Vijayawada on Saturday, December 2.

Manav lived up to his billing of top seed in the tournament after leading the five-games 3-2 against Gnanasekaran Sathiyan 4-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-4, 11-8. A player had to win four games to clinch the title, however, Sathiyan conceded the sixth game after suffering a back spasm.

Despite trailing 1-3 against PSPB's Archana Kamath, Sreeja Akula clawed her way back to win the last three games in a tense final. The Reserve Bank of India paddler Sreeja was staring at defeat when Archana was moments away from sealing the winner at 10-8 in the decider.

But the Commonwealth Games medalist didn't lose her calm and picked up four points in a row to win the first title of the season. Sreeja is also the title holder of the senior national championship.

The next national table tennis event is the UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships 2023 (December 8-14) followed by the 85th Senior National & Inter-State Table Tennis Championships 2023 (December 16-22). Both events will be held at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Panchkula, Haryana.

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Sarth Mishra and Pritha Vartikar win youth titles

Sarth Mishra got the better of his Uttar Pradesh teammate Divyansh Srivastava in a come-from-behind win in the Youth boys (U19) final. Sarth lost the first three games but rallied past Divyansh to pocket the remaining four games. He won the match 9-11, 4-11, 4-11, 11-6, 12-10, 12-10, 14-10.

In the U-19 Girls’ final, Pritha Vartikar of Maharashtra defeated state-mate Sampada Bhiwandkar 4-1 in a lopsided contest 11-6, 11-6, 9-11, 11-5, 11-9. The Pune-born girl won the first two games before losing the third but continued the winning spree to lift her maiden title of the season.