World Table Tennis
World Table Tennis Youth Star Contender: Diya, Swastika finish as runners-up
Tunis/UNI: Young Indian paddlers Diya Chitale and Swastika Ghosh's splendid run came to an end at the 2021 World Table Tennis (WTT) Youth Star Contender when they suffered a 0-3 (3-11, 6-11, 7-11) defeat against the Russian pair of Natalia Malinina and Elizabet Abraamian in the U-19 girls doubles final.
The Indian pair made their way into the final after defeating Czech Republic’s Linda Zaderova and Croatia’s Hana Arapovic 3-2 (8-11, 11-7, 11-6, 6-11, 11-9) in the last-4 match.
Besides the runners-up finish in doubles, Maharashtra girls Diya and Swastika, were also impressive in the U-19 singles as both finished the campaign in the last-4 stage after suffering identical 2-3 defeats in hard-fought encounters.
The youth national champion Diya made life tougher for Russian paddler Vlada Voronina before losing the thrilling contest by 8-11, 11-7, 11-6, 8-11, 7-11 scoreline.
The current junior national champion Swastika too lost to Turkey’s Ece Harac 11-8, 4-11, 11-9, 3-11, 6-11 in an intense 5-setter contest.
In the last-8 stage, Diya and Swastika notched-up convincing victories against Belarus's Vera Volkava (11-9, 11-8, 11-9) and Russia's Natalia (12-10, 11-5, 6-11, 11-8) respectively.
India was represented by Preyesh Raj Suresh, Payas Jain and Deepit Patil who competed in the boys category.
Preyesh exited in the U-15 quarter-finals while Payas and Deepit, who participated in U-19 category, could manage to reach the last-16, including the group stage.
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