Manush Shah, Diya Chitale crowned national table tennis champions

Manush Shah, Diya Chitale crowned national table tennis champions

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.

Both Manush and Diya took home a kitty of Rs. 3.20 lakh each. But more than the purse, it was the glittering trophy that the duo was thrilled with the most. After all, having been crowned sub-junior, junior and youth national champions in their formative years, both the stylish paddlers were ecstatic to have laid their hands on the trophy that they had their eyes on for a decade.

Manush continued from where he had left during his 4-0 drubbing of an on-song Ankur Bhattacharjee in the semifinal and gave Payas little chance by combining his power and angles to precision. Diya, on the other hand, changed her gameplan midway through the match and started using her backhand topspin more effectively to put Sreeja under pressure.