E-Paper
State table tennis: Pune’s Gopal wins in straight games to cruise into third round of junior boys category
City player is on track to win his third title of the season as he beats Kolhapur’s Vedant Tambe
Unseeded Pune boy Adarsh Gopal is on track to win his third title of the season as he dispatched Kolhapur’s Vedant Tambe by an 11-6, 11-8, 14-12 scoreline in the round of 128 of the 49th Inter-District and 80th Maharashtra State Table Tennis Tournament, 2018, at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex, Balewadi on Wednesday.
Having very little experience of playing in the junior boys category, Gopal looked unnerved from the outset and saw his confidence growing leaps and bounds as the match progressed. His opponent, being an unknown commodity, seemed to struggle while returning his serves, and after the first few service exchanges, Gopal began to target his backhand.
In all fairness to Tambe, he did all he could to mount a fight, but failed to do much while returning serves, and ended up losing the first game 11-6.
After having a word with his coach at the change of ends post the first game, a reinvigorated Tambe came out all guns blazing and managed to read his opponent’s service better. Midway through the second game, the score was tied at six points apiece, but Tambe’s lapse in concentration saw him losing both his points on serve, which eventually handed a two-game lead to Gopal.
In the third, Gopal seemed to be no match for his opponent as he raced into a 7-3 lead before having four match points at 10-6. However, rather than killing the tie, the local paddler tried to play extravagant shots and gave his opponent a way back into the contest with the score at 10-10. Having let complacency kick in, Gopal quickly got his act together and broke his opponent’s serve at 12-12, before winning the match’s final point on serve to qualify for the Round of 64.
“I think my game was a bit rusty today. I was a bit casual and maybe I need to be more serious while playing. Due to some silly errors when I was 10-6 up, I ended up losing my lead in the final game. I was impressed with my opponent’s performance. He played few very good services but lacked consistency,” said Adarsh Gopal
Vedant Tambe said, “I was happy with my performance today despite the result. I think I played a few good strokes and the only weakness was my blocking and returning his serves properly. This is the first time I’ve played him and I learnt a lot from his style.”
Meanwhile, in the other junior boys matches, top seed Raegan Albuquerque beat Kamlesh Ukali 11-9, 11-8, 11-4 while the second seeded Deepit Patil also enjoyed an easy 11-9, 11-1, 11-7 win over Manas Domkulwar.
Results
Cadet girls (u-12)
Sana Dsouza(MSD) [Seed - 1] Bt Anushka Rawat(SOL) 11/5,11/1,11/2
Hardee Patel(MSD) [Seed - 2] Bt Nupur Deshpande(SOL) 11/3,8/11,11/5,11/5
Radhika Sakpal(PNA) [Seed - 3] Bt Aarya Parulekar(MCD) 11/3,11/4,11/8
Keisha Jhaveri(MCD) [Seed - 4] Bt Hrithika Madhur(THN) 11/6,11/8,11/5
Cadet boys (u-12)
Gaurav Panchangam(THN) [Seed - 1] Bt Kathit Shah(MSD) 11/5,11/2,11/4
Neil Mulye(PNA) [Seed - 2] Bt Aarav Sanghvi(MCD) 11/7,11/5,11/7
Akshat Jain(MSD) [Seed - 3] Bt Arhaansh Jhingan(MSD) 11/3,11/5,11/8
Kushal Chopda(NSK) [Seed - 4] Bt Krishna Balaji(MSD) 11/2,11/4,11/2
Junior boys (u-18)
Raegan Albuquerque (ai)(AI) [Seed - 1] Bt Kamlesh Ukali(THN) 11/9,11/8,11/4
Deepit Patil(THN) [Seed - 2] Bt Manas Domkulwar(AKL) 11/9,11/1,11/7
Vipul Nandkar(THN) [Seed - 3] Bt Abhisekh Toshniwal(SOL) 11/3,11/3,11/7
Ashwin Subramanian(MSD) [Seed - 4] Bt Raj Kothari(AKL) 11/8,11/8,11/5
Sub-junior girls (u-15)
Pritha Vartikar(PNA) [Seed - 1] Bt Tia Dsouza(MSD) 11/7,11/8,11/4
Kheya Shah(THN) [Seed - 2] Bt Paridhi Potnis(MSD) 11/5,11/6,11/2
Arya Songadkar(THN) [Seed - 3] Bt Hardee Patel(MSD) 11/9,11/7,11/3
Mrunmayee Raikhelkar(PNA) [Seed - 4] Bt Jui Pendharkar(NGP) 11/7,11/5,12/10
Sub-junior boys (u-15)
Havish Asrani(MSD) [Seed - 1] Bt Armaan Dalamal(MCD) 11/3,11/5,11/8
Jash Modi(MSD) [Seed - 2] Bt Shikhar Moondra(PNA) 11/2,11/6,11/5
Rajveer Shah(MSD) [Seed - 3] Bt Raghav Chopra(THN) 11/5,8/11,11/5,11/5
Arnav Karnavar(MSD) [Seed - 4] Bt Vineet Deepak(MSD) 13/11,11/4,11/6