Akhilesh Chandra Saxena
Bareilly: Ghaziabad’s Ankita Gupta and Lucknow’s Divyansh Srivastava won the title in women’s and men’s category respectively in the 11th Shriram Murti Memorial and Second UP State Ranking Table Tennis Tournament.
Lucknow’s Divyansh Srivastava defeated Ghaziabad’s Sarth Mishra 7-11, 11-5, 8-11, 11-9, 13-11 and avenged his last final loss.
In the same tournament held last year, Sarth defeated Divyansh by 4-11, 11-8, 7-11, 13-11, 11-9 points. Ghaziabad’s Suhani Mahajan and Lucknow’s Lakshya Kumar won double titles.
Suhani won the Youth Girls (Under 19) and Junior Girls (Under 17) titles. Suhani also participated in the women’s category, but she lost to Ankita Gupta in the semi-finals. Lucknow’s Lakshya Kumar also won the double title in two categories, Cadet Boys (Under 13) and Hopes Boys (Under 13).
Last year, in the same tournament, Suhani won the triple title by winning in three categories (women’s category, junior girls-under 19 and girls-under 17).
All the matches except the masters were completed on the third day of the four-day Second UP State Ranking Table Tennis Tournament organized by Shri Ram Murti Memorial Trust, operated by ‘Stag Global’.
UPTTA President Sanjeev Pathak, former General Secretary of UPTTA Arun Banerjee, Tournament Director NK Lahiri, Amit Singh who became an international Blue Badge umpire, Bareilly Table Tennis Association Secretary Dipendra Kamathan, Advisor of Shri Ram Murti Memorial Trust Subhash Mehra, Dean of Shri Ram Murti College of Engineering and Technology Dr. Prabhakar Gupta, Organizing Secretary of the tournament Dr. Sovan Mohanty presented trophies and certificates to the winning players.
The final matches of the Masters category, included for the first time in the tournament, will be held on Sunday. Veteran male and female players above the age of 39 will participate in it. In this category, veteran men have been placed in six categories (39+, 49+, 59+, 64+, 69+, 74+) and veteran women in three categories (39+, 49+, 59+).
