Sagarika Mukherjee kept her cool to stun former National champion Madhurika Patkar, putting the finishing touches to Railways’ stunning 3-2 win over fancied Petroleum for a place in the women’s team final of the National table tennis championship here on Wednesday.
Takeme Sarkar’s twin wins for Railways and Madhurika’s twin losses for Petroleum proved decisive. Railways now faces defending champion Bengal ‘A’ in the final. Bengal also came through a tough 3-2 margin over Haryana.
In the men’s section, after claiming the last of its four titles in 1983, Delhi stunned second seed Gujarat 3-0 to reach the title-clash against Petroleum.
Though the result of the final is a foregone conclusion in favour of the indomitable Petroleum — an easy 3-0 winner over host Telangana that reached the semifinal after 1969 — it was indeed a stellar performance from Delhi.
Finding his form
An otherwise struggling Sudhanshu Grover found his form against Ishaan Hingorani to win in straight sets. Parth Virmani caused a big upset by stunning Manush Shah in five sets.
What followed was a ‘battle of generations’ between 16-year-old Payas Jain and Jignesh Jaiswal, who turned 42 on Wednesday. Jaiswal, a regular at National championships for over two decades, had his moments but lacked the energy to match the alacrity to prove stronger against the reigning National junior champion.
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