Table tennis WTT Contender: India’s golden girls 

Indian table tennis junior girls swept all the gold medals on offer as they went on a rampage at the WTT Contender event in Tunis.

The Indian table tennis girls were on the money and produced scintillating efforts as many finals, in various categories, were played between Indians.

In the U-19 girls’ category, Swastika Ghosh defeated compatriot Yashaswini Ghorphade 3-2 (6-11, 11-6, 6-11, 11-6 11-8) in a gripping encounter. However, Yashaswini Ghorphade triumphed in the U-17 category when she overcame Egyptian Farida Badawy 3-0. (11-6, 14-12, 11-7).

Suhana Saini emerged victorious in the U-15 category when she beat Pritha Vartikar for her second international gold. The Haryana-born table tennis player was fresh from a title-winning sojourn in Slovenia and continued her good form here.

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In the U-13 category, M. Hansini beat Prisha Goel 3-0 (11-5, 11-8, 11-8) in the final while in the U-11s, Dhaani Jain emerged champion when she downed Ananya Muralidharan 3-2 (11-4, 11-6, 9-11, 10-12, 11-7) in a tough final.

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Yashaswini Ghorphade, the Bengaluru-based table tennis player, playing in her second final of the evening soon after a brief break from her gold-winning U-17 final, took on Mumbai table tennis player Swastika in the U-17 category. Nicely warmed up, Yashaswini won the first game before Swastika recovered to take the second. But the fight continued unabated, as the two shared the next two games and, in the decider, Swastika proved a notch better than Yashaswini.

Earlier, Yashaswini beat Nithyashree Mani 3-1 (9-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-5), while Swastika downed Lakshita Narang 3-1 (11-4, 10-12, 11-8, 11-7) in their semi-finals. Both the Chennai and Delhi table tennis players settled for the bronze medals.

In U-17 final, it was a different story for Yashaswini. Her Egyptian opponent Badawy proved no match in the final. But the Bengaluru table tennis player dropped a game first and struggled in the third to subdue Lakshita in the semi-final, winning it 3-1 (8-11, 11-4, 11-8, 13-11). The Delhi table tennis player again had to settle for bronze.

Haryana’s Suhana showed her resolve in her golden win in the U-15 against Maharashtra’s Pritha. In the tense final, Suhana surged ahead with a sizeable lead to seal it.

Sayali Wani lost her semi-final outing to Suhana 7-11, 10-12, 11-13. It is creditable that the West Bengal table tennis player could stretch the experienced Suhana in the last two games. Pritha dropped a game in her semi-final against Belgian Lilou Massart but picked up momentum to finish with an 3-1 (11-9, 11-4, 9-11, 11-2) victory.

In the U-13 final, Chennai-born table tennis player Hansini beat Delhi’s Prisha Goel in straight games. In the semi-finals, Hansini beat Ananya, also a straight-game affair, while Prisha beat Uzbek’s Asel Erkebaeva 3-0 (11-6, 12-10, 11-4). Ananya returned with the bronze.