Double delight for Soumyajit Ghosh

After winning the doubles title with Anthony Amalraj, the paddler wins the men’s singles final of the Seamaster 2017 ITTF Challenge Chile Open, beating his doubles partner.

Soumyajit Ghost (right) and Anthony Amalraj after winning the Chile Open.

Soumyajit Ghosh, the top seed, defeated compatriot Anthony Amalraj, the third seed, in six games at 8-11, 13-11, 11-6, 11-9, 4-11, 11-7 in the men’s singles final of the Seamaster 2017 ITTF Challenge Chile table tennis Open in Santiago on Sunday.

Soumyajit, by bagging his first International singles crown, became the third player from India after Sharath Kamal and G. Sathiyan to win a men’s singles title at an ITTF Challenge Series or an ITTF World Tour tournament.

Soumyajit and Amalraj won the men’s doubles title at the same event with a 13-11, 10-12, 14-12, 11-9 win over Philipp Floritz (Bulgaria) and Szocs Huno Szocs (Romania).

Speaking to the International Table Tennis Federation website, Soumyajit said: “I had to start the sixth game aggressively, I kept thinking I could win my first big international title; it was hard to win playing against Amalraj. It took some time to adapt to the ball, it’s harder than the one we used before; it’s good quality, it enables more power but less spin.”