Manush Shah and Diya Chitale joined the elite list of men’s and women’s national champions, respectively, after outclassing Payas Jain and top seed Sreeja Akula, respectively, in the singles finals of the 86th Senior Table Tennis Championship, which concluded at the Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay Indoor Stadium on Sunday.
Manush, the bespectacled southpaw who hails from Vadodara – not too far from the diamond city, – but representing his employer Reserve Bank of India (RBI) instead of his home state Gujarat – continued his clinical run to overcome Payas in five games in the best-of-seven final.
An hour earlier, Diya, the Mumbai girl also representing RBI, bounced back after trailing 2-0 against the hot favourite Sreeja – India’s top-ranked international paddler – and won a thrilling women’s final that turned out to be the longest match of the final day’s proceedings. The singles win meant Diya finished the tournament with a double crown, with the singles finalists having combined to clinch the doubles crown on Saturday.
Source: The Hindu