Known for his cool and composed game with variety of services, Maharashtra’s Kiran Salian invited all the attention on the penultimate day of the IMPTTA_ National Masters’ Table Tennis tournament 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 take on their B team in the finals.
In the Men’s 49+ Singles semi finals event, Kiran scored a narrow win over top seeded Sameer Bhate 3-2, to face Ravi Chopra who defeated Bhushan Nevgi 3-2 in another closely fought battle. 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 an 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 indicates that he is 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 face 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, as both Moonmoon Mukherjee and Sushma Mogre secured their place in the final with their victories over Sivapriya Naik and Shravani Dhapre respectively.
However, In the 49+ Women’s doubles event, Rajasthan women Sushila Chaudhary and Divya Gautam put up a good show in semi finals, assuring their place in the finals, after defeating seeded pair of Shravani Dhapre and Trupti Machve. They will face the challenge from another Maharashtra pair Vaishali Malvankar & Ujwala Chandramore in the final.
The Men’s 59+ team event will be played between Maharashtra A and C teams. In the Men’s Singles 49+ 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 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.Shah 3-2
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.
