GUWAHATI, Sept 28 - It was one of the best men�s singles finals one had witnessed in a long time at a national ranking tournament. And when Siddhesh Pandey, the deserving winner lifted the glittering trophy and received the prize cheque of Rs 77,000 at the 11Sports National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships from Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the spectators stood in unison to applaud his efforts at the Deshbhakta Tarun Ram Phookan Indoor Stadium in RG Baruah Sports Complex here today.
The unseeded paddler got the better of the original title-contender and top-seed Manav Thakkar from PSPB 4-3 in a marathon final that lasted nearly an hour.
Suthirta Mukherjee blanked out Madhurika Patkar 4-0. The Haryana paddler, who won her first title at Vijayawada a couple of weeks ago in the South Zone meet, went on the attack right from the word go to unsettle the former national champion. The Haryana girl walked away with a cash award of Rs 66,000.
Results: (Women�s Singles) Suthirta Mukherjee (Har) bt Madhurika Patkar (PSPB) 11-9, 11-8, 11-6, 11-6; (Men�s Singles) Siddhesh Pandey (Mah) bt Manav Thakkar (PSPB) 11-8, 4-11, 11-8, 7-11, 8-11, 15-13; (Youth Girls Singles) Prapti Sen (WB) bt Sreeja Akula (RBI) 11-6, 4-11, 4-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-5; (Youth Boys Singles) Manav Thakkar (PSPB) bt Jeet Chandra (Har) 10-12, 11-2, 11-5, 11-3, 11-6.
