South Zone table tennis | Telegana make stunning comeback to lift men’s title
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After falling behind thanks to a few impressive displays by Tamil Nadu, Telangana came back via Snehit Rafeeque and Mohammed Ali to win the title 3-2. In the women’s, however, Tamil Nadu kept their stronghold with Selenadeepthi Selvakumar and Deepika Neelakandan winning their matches.
Despite not being a masterful performance by either of the teams, the Telangana men’s team showed good resilience to hold off a strong Tamil Nadu side during the second half of the team final in the UTT-South Zone National ranking table tennis championship.
Being held at the Jimmy George indoor stadium here on Wednesday, both the teams had equal chances of lifting the title. However, Tamil Nadu started off really strong with Nitin Trivengadam winning the opening match against Mohammed Ali in five sets. It was followed by Telegana’s Snehit defeating Nikhil Suresh to level proceedings.
Tamil Nadu took the lead again through Ananth Devarajan, who defeated Aman Balgu to restore a 2-1 lead. Snehit was tied 2-2 with Nitin when the break was called and upon resumption, Snehit continued to dominate, eventually beating Nikhil and levelling the tie again. However, with the tie now level, Ali inflicted the biggest blow on Tamil Nadu by beating Nikhil in four games to win the tie 3-2.
The women’s final was more straightforward with Tamil Nadu’s Selanadeepthi winning her two matches and Deepika Neelakandan winning her one for a 3-1 victory. For Telangana, the only win came from Varuni Jaiswal.
Men (final): Telangana by Tamil Nadu 3-2 (Mohammed Ali lost to Nitin Thiruvengadam 4-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 11-13; Snehit Rafeeque bt Nikhil Suresh 11-6, 8-11, 11-9, 4-11, 11-8; Aman Balgu lost to Ananth Devarajan 7-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 7-11; Snehit bt Nitin 12-10, 11-8, 5-11, 5-11, 11-5; Mohammed Ali bt Nikhil 11-8, 7-11, 12-10, 11-9).
Women (final): Tamil Nadu bt Telangana 3-1 (Selenadeepthi Selvakumar bt Naina 11-9, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9; Yashini Sivashankar lost to Varuni Jaiswal 4-11, 8-11, 9-11; Deepika Neelakandan bt Monica Manohar 8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-4, 11-6; Selanadeepthi bt Varuni 10-12, 11-6, 11-7, 11-8). Semifinals: Telangana bt Andhra Pradesh 3-1, Tamil Nadu bt Karnataka 3-2. Quarterfinals: Andhra Pradesh bt Kerala 3-0, Karntaka bt Puducherry 3-0.
