Table Tennis | Manav Thakkar bags two gold medals at Portugal Open
Junior Table Tennis player Manav Thakkar won the singles gold and then partnered with Manush Shah to also win the doubles gold medal in an all Indian doubles finals. Thakkar was not in form at the Youth Olympics at Buenos Aires a couple of months ago and had made an early exit there.
Manav Thakkar finished the ITTF World Junior Circuit with two gold medals to his neck courtesy his Junior Boys Singles and doubles gold at the 2018 Portugal Junior and Cadet Open in GuimarĂŁes on Wednesday night.Â
In the singles category, Thakkar defeated India’s Jeet Chandra in a close match which panned out all seven games with ultimately Thakkar coming on the top with 11-5, 7-11, 10-12, 11-8, 9-11, 11-4, 11-9.Â
Earlier in the tournament, Thakkar beat the likes of the fifth-seed Italian John Oyebode 11-9, 11-6, 11-3, 9-11, 11-5 in the pre-quarters, Portugal’s Gonçalo Gomez 11-5, 11-5, 11-9, 11-4 in the quarters and finally third-seeded Indian Snehit 11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 11-5, 7-11, 6-11, 11-4 in the semifinals.
Earlier, Thakkar also won the doubles match partnering Manush Shah and defeated their compatriot pairing of Chandra and Snehit Suravajjula, the No. 2 seeds, by a margin of 11-7, 11-6, 13-15, 7-11, 11-6. This match too was a close affair as represented by the scoreline.
On the other hand, in the women’s category, Selena Deepthi Selvakumar and Swastika Ghosh won a bronze medal each in Junior Girls singles. Selena lost to Liu Yangzi 8-11, 16-18, 8-11, 3-11 while China’s Qin Xiaoce beat Swastika 13-11, 11-3, 11-6, 12-10. In the doubles category Selena paired with Italian Marie Chapet but lost the semifinal to Portugal pair of Raquel Martins and Celia Silva 7-11, 6-11, 9-11 to settle for the bronze medal.