National Table Tennis Championships: Harmeet Desai regains title; Poymantee is first-time winner

Railways’ Poymantee Baisya became the new singles champion in the women’s section. She also won the women’s doubles crown with Sutirtha and finished runner-up with Akash Pal in mixed doubles.

Petroleum’s Harmeet Desai and Poymantee Baisya (Railways) pose with their trophies and medals after winning the singles titles in the National table tennis championship in Panchkula on Friday. | Photo Credit: RAKESH RAO

Sometimes the score-lines do not reflect the clear superiority of a player. On Friday, Harmeet Desai’s classy display stood out during the seven games he needed to dethrone G. Sathiyan and regain the men’s singles title in the National table tennis championship here.

Before Harmeet won his second National title, Railways’ Poymantee Baisya became the new singles champion in the women’s section. She also won the women’s doubles crown with Sutirtha Mukherjee and finished runner-up with Akash Pal in mixed doubles.

Harmeet trailed twice but hit back to pull ahead 3-2 when Sathiyan exercised the option of a medical break to nurse his troubled back. This surely broke Harmeet’s rhythm as he dropped a close sixth game. But in the decider, Harmeet led for the better part and eventually won 10-12, 12-10, 14-16, 11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 11-8.

The resilience of Harmeet came to the fore in the fourth game where he rallied from 4-9 to win the next seven points to level the match. In the fifth, Harmeet trailed 4-6 but won seven of the last nine points to win 11-8.

Once the match resumed after the 10-minute injury-break taken by Sathiyan, Harmeet trailed 4-8 but regained the momentum to make it 9-9 but Sathiyan won the last two points.

In the decider, Harmeet never trailed and stayed in control even after Sathiyan fought from 4-7 to make it 8-8. Harmeet closed it out with a hat-trick of points.

Earlier, a three-time singles quarter-finalist this season, ninth-seeded Poymantee took out former champion Archana Kamath, defending champion Sreeja Akula and this year’s Arjuna Awardee, fourth seed Ayhika Mukherjee to become the new champion. She put the finishing touches to her superb campaign. She bounced back from the loss of the opening game to overpower Ayhika, another first-time finalist, 10-12, 11-7,11-6, 11-9, 8-11, 11-4.

Two titles from three finals is an amazing performance for the Railway girl who trains under Abhishek Mukherjee.

Earlier in the day, Manush Shah allowed only 18 points to fourth seed Sharath Kamal in what could well be his final National championship appearance. The 10-time champion, admittedly rusty, won nine points in the opener and managed only nine more points spread over the last three games to suffer his worst loss in 23 appearances since 1998.

Later, Tamil Nadu’s teenager P. B. Abhinand was awarded the D. Vishwa Trophy for his outstanding performance in the senior section this season, including the National championship.