Known for his cool and composed game and good use of variation in services, Maharashtra’s Kiran Salian invited all the attention on the penultimate day of the IMPTTA- National Masters’ Table Tennis Championship at Andheri Sports Complex, Mumbai. Kiran while representing Maharashtra A team along with Sameer Bhate, Tejas Naik and Rajesh Singh, not only assured a Gold medal for Maharashtra team, as they booked their place in finals along with their ‘B’ team.
Kiran Salian in action
In the Men’s 49+ Singles semi finals event, Kiran received a walkover from top seeded Sameer Bhate , to meet Ravi Chopra, who defeated hard hitter Bhushan Nevgi 3-2 in another closely fought battle. Kiran had earlier beaten Tejas Naik 3-1 also from Maharashtra. In Men’s doubles semi finals, Kiran Partnering Sameer Bhate scored a straight 3-0 games win over Dr. Nitin Toshniwal & Atmaram Gangarde to meet Rajesh Singh and Naveen Salian in finals. Thereafter, partnering Bibiana Lopes in Mixed doubles 49+ semi finals, Kiran scored another easy 3-0 win over Avinash Kothari and Moonmoon Mukherjee. The other semi finals was won by Naveen Salian and Trupti Machve, who beat Sameer Bhate & Shravani Dhapre. Kiran’s winning run clearly indicated that he was in line for triple crown in 49+ events.
In the 49+ Women’s team event, Maharashtra women also assured a Gold medal, as their ‘A’ team represented by Sivapriya Naik, Shravani Dhapre, Trupti Machve & Sushma Mogre will aceept the challenge from their ‘ B’ team, comprising of Sadiya Vanjara, Vinita Shukla and Priyanka Ghumre in the finals.
The women’s 49+ singles event, also ensured Maharashtra another Gold medal in individual singles, as both Moonmoon Mukherjee and Sushma Mogre secured their place in the final, with their victories over Sivapriya Naik and Shravani Dhapre respectively.
Rajasthan’s doubles pair Divya Gautam(L) and Sushila Choudhary gave an impressive performance
However, In the 49+ Women’s doubles event, Rajasthan women Sushila Chaudhary and Divya Gautam put up a good show in semi finals, securing their place in the finals, after defeating seeded pair of Shravani Dhapre and Trupti Machve. They will face the challenge from another Maharashtra pair of Vaishali Malvankar & Ujwala Chandramore in the final.
Debashish Saha ( West Bengal) toppled top seed Jogesh Motwani ( Maharashtra) 3-2 in semi finals of Men’s 59+ Singles .
The Men’s 59+ team event will be played between Maharashtra A and C teams. In the Men’s Singles 59+ semi final, West Bengal’s Debashish Saha toppled top seeded Jogesh Motawani 3-2 in a thrilling five setter match. He will meet Maharashtra’s Pradeep Gupta in the finals. The other results of 59+ individual semi final events are as follows:
Women’s 59+ Singles : Mantu Murmu( W.B) beat Sandhya Patwa ( Raj)3-0; Karabi Maity (W.B) beat Madhavi Sawant ( Mah) 3-0.
Men’s 59+ Doubles : Atul Deshmukh & Jogesh Motwani ( Mah) beat beat Subhamoy Chatterjee & P.C.Shah3-2
Women’s 59+ Doubles : Mantu Murmu & Karabi Maity ( W.B.) beat Nisha Kapse & Madhavi Sawant ( Mah); Swati Agharkar & Manisha Pradhan beat Isa Sukanya & Sandhya Patwa ( Tel) 3-0.
Mixed 59+ Doubles : Swati Agharkar & Purshottam Markad beat Nutan Dhikale & Ashok Kalambe 3-0; Prashant Machve & Jayashree N beat Kapil Kumar & Manisha Pradhan 3-2.