Manav Thakkar, Sreeja Akula win singles title at UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships

Manav wins successive title in the competition.

Youngsters Manav Thakkar and Sreeja Akula clinched the men’s and women’s singles titles at the UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships 2023. The former defeated reigning national Sathiyan Gnanasekaran while Sreeja got the better of Archana Kamath and finished the campaign on a high.

Meanwhile, Sarth Mishra and Prita Vartikar secured the U-19 title in men’s and women’s section. Sarth defeated Divyansh (4-3) in a close encounter while the latter from Maharashtra thumped statemate Sampada Bhiwandkar (4-1).

In the men’s singles final, Sathiyan started well by leading (2-1) against the top seed. However, he couldn’t continue giving his best after he suffered from back spasm. He held on to play for a few more minutes but ultimately retired to concede the match (4-2).

Earlier in the day, Sreeja Akula representing RBI (Reserve Bank of India) saved two match points in the decider to win the title (4-3). Archana Kamath had a dream start to the finale winning the first two games. She had an upper hand after she continued to hold on to the lead (3-1) but Sreeja came back and made use of her experience. At (8-10) in the decider, Sreeja stayed calm and composed and won four straight points to secure victory.

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Other Indian’s in fray, Sharath Kamal finished the campaign in the quarterfinals after losing to Sourav Saha. Sharath had the match in hands and looked set to progress to the last 4 but Sourav brought in his ‘A’ game and shocked the four-time Olympian. He was later stopped by Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in the semifinals but overall had a good tournament.

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