BANGALORE, Sept 9: Sharath Kamal and K Shamini emerged men’s and women’s singles champions respectively at the Indian Oil Servo National Ranking (South Zone) Table Tennis Championships here today.
Sharath won a hard-fought battle against left-handed Jubin Kumar 4-2 after being down 1-2 while Shamini was pushed to the limit by Ankita Das before winning by an identical margin at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium.
Sharath brought out all his experience of playing on the World pro tour and displayed long-ball play and wonderful returns away from the table, which drew thunderous applause from the crowd.
Understandably, the attacking Kumar wilted under immense pressure when he should have slowed down the pace. And once Sharath levelled at 2-2, it was curtains for the Gujarat man.
In the women’s singles, Shamini started with a bang winning the first game. She held on to her nerves to take the second game at 17-15 on the sixth game point.
The 19-year-old Olympian, Ankita won the next two games rather easily to level the scores at 2-2.
But in the crucial fifth game, the two-time national champion led her way all through and shut out whatever little challenge that came from Ankita. With a decisive 3-2 lead, all Shamini had to do was play carefully in the sixth.
She did that to greater perfection as an error-prone Ankita was struggling to find her feet as she net-corded most of her returns. (PTI)
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