Sreeja, Snehit bag bronze medals at UTT Table Tennis Championship

Hyderabad: Hyderabad table tennis players Akula Sreeja and S Fidel R Snehit won women’s and men’s singles bronze medals respectively at the UTT National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championship at Abhay Prashal Indoor Stadium in Indore, Madhya Pradesh on Thursday. Representing Reserve Bank of India, Sreeja, who was seeded top in the women’s category, […]

Hyderabad: Hyderabad table tennis players Akula Sreeja and S Fidel R Snehit won women’s and men’s singles bronze medals respectively at the UTT National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championship at Abhay Prashal Indoor Stadium in Indore, Madhya Pradesh on Thursday.

Representing Reserve Bank of India, Sreeja, who was seeded top in the women’s category, played her heart out before going down to Diya Chitale Parag of Maharashtra in a closely-fought match with 3-4(11-8, 8-11, 11-8, 12-10, 7-11, 3-11, 4-11) scorelines in the semifinal.

Earlier, Sreeja defeated Anusha Kutumbala (MP) 4-0 (11-6, 11-4, 11-6, 12-10) in the quarterfinals and had outsmarted Anannya Basak (Mah) 4-0 (11-7, 11-3, 11-9, 11-8) in the pre-quarters.

In the men’s section, Snehit, seeded ninth, registered an upset victory over second seed and former World No. 1 in youth category, Manav Thakkar 4-3 (6-11, 11-6, 11-13, 3-11, 12-10, 11-8, 11-8) in the quarterfinals.

After being 1-3 down, Snehit rallied to record victory and enter semis. However, he lost to the No. 3 seed Harmeet Desai 1-4 (11-8, 8-11, 8-11, 7-11, 8-11). This is Snehit’s maiden semifinal appearance.

Snehit had beaten Jeet Chandra (AAI) 4-0 (12-10, 11-9, 11-9, 14-12) in pre-quarter finals.

“It is indeed a bad day for us. It was going too well till the semifinals for both of my students giving an impression that they were all set to win titles but it didn’t work out,” said Somnath Ghosh, coach at Somnath Ghosh MLR-UTT Academy in Hyderabad.

He said that an extra effort is needed to prove their mettle in the forthcoming National Championships to be held next month.

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