Sharat, Poulami lift men, women singles titles

Bangalore, Sep 5 (UNI) National Champions A Sharat Kamal and Poulami Ghatak, both representing Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB), lifted men and women's singles titles in the 36th All India inter Institutional Table Tennis Championship played at the Kanteerava Indoor Stadium here today.

In an all PSPB finals, top seed Kamal trounced his team mate Subhajit Saha in straight sets 4-0, while Ghatak defeated her team mate and 11th seed Mousomi Paul 4-1.

With his superb smashing, Olympian Kamal took just 20 minutes to crash out Saha 11-9, 11-4, 11-6, 11-3, while Ghatak had to sweat it out for 45 minutes as her opponent tried to stage a comeback by winning the third game. However, Ghatak prevailed upon and won the match 11-8, 11-6, 7-11, 11-6, 11-3 to lift the title.

Later talking to reporters, Kamal, who would be flying to Singapore directly from here to participate in the World Ranking tournament, there said the win had boosted his morale and he was looking forward to perform well at Singapore. Kamal would also be taking part in the World Ranking tournament scheduled to be held later this month in China.

In the Doubles finals, which was also an all PSPB affair, Arup Basak partnering with Ranbir Das defeated Subham Choudhary and Arunava Ganguly 10-12, 11-8, 10-12, 11-7, 11-4 to lift the title.

In the women's section K Shamini and Vishakha Vijay defeated Mamta Prabhu and Mousomi Paul 9-11, 11-6, 11-6, 10-12, 11-7.

The mixed doubles title was lifted by Subham Choudhary and Vishakha Vijay (PSPB) defeating Subhajit Saha and Nandita Saha 11-8, 11-3, 9-11, 11-8.

UNI MSP RG PDS HT2032