Hyderabad’s Sreeja clinches South Zone TT title
Hyderabad: Hyderabad table tennis player Akula Sreeja emerged champion in the women’s singles at the UTT National Ranking Championships (South Zone) at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Puducherry, on Thursday.
Sreeja, representing RBI, defeated Swastika Ghosh (AAI) 4-3 (5-11, 11-7, 7-11, 17-19, 11-4, 11-6, 12-10) in a thriller to win the title that has been elusive for a long time. Sreeja defeated Diya Chitale (Mah) 4-3 (11-6, 9-11, 9-11, 13-11, 11-9, 4-11, 13-11) in an equally high-tension semifinal encounter to storm into the finals.
“I feel very happy to win the title. I worked really hard for this. Things went off well,” said the victorious Sreeja. She also credited her coach Somnath Ghosh and fitness coach Hirak Bagchi of Somnath Gosh-MLR-UTT Table Tennis Academy.
“Sreeja made a wonderful comeback and proved her mettle. It’s a good augury for her in her international career,” coach Somnath Ghosh said.
Meanwhile in all-Gujaratis finals, Harmeet Desai won the men’s title by defeating the in-form Manush Shah 4-1 (11-9, 12-10, 6-11, 13-11, 11-7). Other paddlers from Hyderabad S Fidel R Snehit went down in pre-quarters in men’s category while Balasuri Varun Shankar faltered in quarterfinals in Under-19 boys section.
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