CONTRARY to expectations, Bengal's domination of the table tennis events in the National Games at Jalandhar remained limited to the team championship. In the open events, the State had to suffer several embarrassing moments as it failed to send a finalist to four out of five finals.
It was here that Tamil Nadu made up with a vengeance for losing both the team finals to Bengal. N. R. Indu, fiercely determined to make amends for letting her State down in the team championship final, went on to claim the singles title after having ensured the mixed doubles gold with S. Raman and the women's doubles silver.
The second-seeded Indu easily conquered a nervous Vishakha Bijoy with ease in the final to finish her campaign with an impressive personal haul of two golds and as many silver medals. The fifth-seeded Vishakha, playing the biggest match of her career, had gate-crashed into the title-match by putting out top-seed Mouma Das in the semifinal.
Raman, the defending champion but seeded seven, relied on his vast experience while making a mockery of the seedings and reaching the final. But once he was rattled by the last-minute decision of the organisers to advance the final by 30 minutes. He lost rather tamely to the favourite and National champion Soumyadeep Roy. Raman later made it a point to let his displeasure be known, something that made many wonder why, in the first place, he agreed to play at the rescheduled time.
Sadly, the finals proved to be damp squibs with Indu and Soumyadeep winning with unexpected ease. If Raman played much below par, Vishakha was too defensive and allowed her rival to call the shots.
For the record, players from Tamil Nadu and Bengal collected three golds each before Soumyadeep gave Rajasthan its first. What separated the two front-runners was Tamil Nadu's tally of five silver medals to Bengal's none. In fact, the mixed doubles final was an all-Tamil Nadu affair, with Raman and Indu getting the better of A. Sharath Kamal and T. Pradeepa.
Earlier, Indu and Pradeepa also made the women's doubles final before going down to the favourite combination of Mouma Das and Poulomi Ghatak.
The men's singles seeding, based on the mid-term classification list of the season, saw five Bengal players - Sivaji Dutta, Ranbir Das, Sourav Chakraborty, Subhajit Saha and Arup Basak - fill second to sixth places, in that order. But surprisingly, all except Sourav, failed to make the semifinals. Sourav then fell to Soumyadeep and signalled a premature end to Bengal's challenge.
But the find of these competitions was Sharath Kamal. He conquered Soumyadeep in the team championship and came out victorious against Ranbir Das and Arup Basak, before going down to Raman in the semifinal.
For most part of the season, Kamal was just another face in the crowd but his triumph in the recent inter-Railway championship seemed to have rekindled his confidence. The way he blasted Basak in four straight games revealed growing self-belief. The lanky Kamal used his height and reach to great advantage by hitting winners after meeting the ball at the top of the bounce. Kamal was most impressive but it remains to be seen how he carries on the good work in the coming National Championship.
Sivaji Dutta, seeded two, was lucky not to fall at the first hurdle, against Punjab's Vikas Mahajan. The following day, Rajasthan youngster Anal Kashyap inflicted a straight-game defeat to put an end to Dutta's agonising campaign. But Kashyap went on to lose to Raman. Fifth-seed Subhajit Saha crashed to Tamil Nadu's R. Rajesh.
In the women's section, too, the challengers from Bengal found the going too tough to their liking. All three National champions - Mouma Das, Poulomi Ghatak and Kasturi Chakraborty - met unexpected ends.
Little-known Tamil Nadu girl J. Swarna brushed aside Kasturi in the pre-quarterfinals. Mouma went down to Vishakha in the semifinals after Bhuvaneshwari had shown Poulomi the door following a marathon battle for a place in the last-four.
Indu, too, had her testing moments against Susmita Roy in the quarterfinal and again when facing Bhuvaneshwari. But she won her fourth singles title of the season and 17th in all. "I did not want to go back with a bagful of silver medals so I was very determined to do well in the singles event," said Indu.
Vishakha, semifinalist in two major tournaments this season, was too circumspect against Indu whom she had beaten in New Delhi recently. She later rued her approach of relying too much on blocking and not choosing to attack in the early phase of the match.
In the two-day team championship, the Bengal men were never threatened on their way to regaining the title. The presence of comeback-man Arup Basak besides the two rising teenagers, Ranbir Das and Sourav Chakraborty besides Sivaji Dutta, made Bengal an overwhelming favourite. And it proved its worth by winning all its matches by the maximum margin. In the final, too, once Sourav got the measure of the seasoned Raman, Bengal made it without fuss. On way to the final, Tamil Nadu notched a surprisingly easy 3-0 victory over Rajasthan after Kamal had stopped Soumyadeep. Punjab and Uttar Pradesh were seeded to reach the semifinals, based on their performances in the National championship in Lucknow in 2000. Though Punjab, led by Deepak Thukral, did make it to the bronze medal round, Uttar Pradesh proved that it did not deserve to be seeded.
The women's section saw Bengal and Tamil Nadu simply roll over the opposition on way to their much-awaited clash in the final.
On the way, Poulomi blasted Indu in the opening singles to firmly put Bengal on course but Mouma lost her way against T. Pradeepa. A struggling Kasturi, too, bowed to N. Arul Selvi to raise visions of a possible triumph for Tamil Nadu. In fact, Indu, while facing Mouma, moved within two points of winning the fourth game and the tie, but had not reckoned with her rival's ability to produce the big shots when needed. Mouma came up with some unbelievable returns and extricated herself from the brink of defeat. Thereafter, it was Mouma who came out stronger in the decider.
From day one, even as doubts hovered over the smooth conduct of the Games, the conduct of table tennis stood out as a notable exception. Everything was in order and it was clearly an organisational success. Though, at the fag end, Raman was the one who thought otherwise.
The results:Men's singles (final): Soumyadeep Roy (Raj) bt S. Raman (Tamil Nadu) 11-9, 11-9, 11-5, 12-10; (semifinals): Roy bt Sourav Chakraborty (Ben) 11-3, 5-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-6, 11-4; Raman bt A. Sharath Kamal 11-3, 10-12, 12-10, 11-5, 11-5.
Women's singles (final): N. R. Indu (Tamil Nadu) bt Vishakha Bijoy (Raj) 11-9, 11-4, 14-12, 11-6; (semifinals): Indu bt B. Bhuvaneshwari (Tamil Nadu) 11-7, 7-11, 11-9, 7-11, 13-11, 11-7; Vishakha bt Mouma Das (Ben) 11-7, 7-11, 11-9, 7-11, 13-11, 11-7.
Men's doubles (final): S. Raman/Sharath Kamal (Tamil Nadu) bt Soumyadeep Roy/Anal Kashyap (Raj) 11-7, 6-11, 11-13, 11-9, 12-10; (semifinals): Raman/ Kamal bt Ranbir Das/Sourav Chakraborty (Ben) 11-9, 9-11, 11-3, 11-8; Roy/Kashyap bt Arup Basak/Subhajit Saha (Ben) 6-11, 11-5, 10-12, 11-4, 11-5.
Women's doubles (final): Mouma Das/Poulomi Ghatak (Ben) bt N. R. Indu/T. Pradeepa (Tamil Nadu) 6-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-8; (semifinals): Mouma/Poulomi bt N. Arul Selvi/B. Bhuvaneshwari (Tamil Nadu) 11-6, 9-11, 11-1, 11-7; Indu/Pradeepa bt Susmita Roy/Mousami Pal (Ben) 11-7, 11-8, 11-7.
Mixed doubles (final): S. Raman/N. R. Indu (Tamil Nadu) bt A. Sharath Kamal/T. Pradeepa (Tamil Nadu) 11-5, 14-12, 4-11, 11-4; (semifinals): Raman/Indu bt Arup Basak/Mouma Das (Ben) 11-7, 11-8, 11-7; Sharath/Pradeepa bt Sivaji Dutta/Mousami Paul (Ben) 11-6, 11-5, 9-11, 11-5;
Team championship (final): Men: Bengal beat Tamil Nadu 3-0 (Arup Basak bt Sharath Kamal 11-6, 11-7, 11-5; Sourav Chakraborty bt S. Raman 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 10-12, 12-10; Ranbir Das bt R. Rajesh 11-7, 13-11, 11-3); (semifinals): Tamil Nadu beat Punjab 3-0 (Sharath Kamal bt Deepak Thukral 11-8, 11-7, 11-8; Raman bt Vaneet Chopra 11-8, 11-9, 11-9; R. Rajesh bt Vikram Aditya 9-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-8); Bengal beat Rajasthan 3-0 (Ranbir Das bt Soumyadeep Roy 11-5, 11-7, 11-5; Arup Basak bt Anal Kashyap 13-11, 11-7, 11-5; Sivaji Dutta bt Lokendra Singh 8-11, 10-12, 11-6, 11-3, 11-5).
Women (final): Bengal beat Tamil Nadu 3-2 (Poulomi Ghatak bt N. R. Indu 11-8, 11-6, 11-7; Mouma Das lost to T. Pradeepa 7-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 8-11; Kasturi Chakraborty lost to N. Arul Selvi 13-15, 9-11, 14-12, 7-11; Mouma bt Indu 6-11, 17-15, 9-11, 12-10, 11-5; Poulomi bt Pradeepa 11-6, 11-9, 11-5); (semifinals): Tamil Nadu bt Maharashtra 3-0 (T. Pradeepa bt Jahnavi Deshpande 11-5, 11-5, 11-8; Indu bt Shalmali Mhatre 13-11, 12-10, 10-12, 11-4; Arul Selvi bt Radhika Ghatnekar 11-6, 11-8, 11-5); Bengal beat Delhi 3-0 (Poulomi Ghatak bt Pratima Syal 8-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-13, 11-2; Mouma Das bt Ekta Bhambri 11-4, 11-7, 13-15, 17-15; Susmita Roy bt Nandini Kulkarni 11-9, 8-11, 11-3, 11-5).
Medals Tally (read as gold-silver-bronze): Tamil Nadu 3-5-3; Bengal 3-0-7; Rajasthan 1-2-1; Delhi 0-0-1; Punjab 0-0-1; Maharashtra 0-0-1.
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