Cuttack: Asif Haque of RBI and Ananya Basak representing Khurda clinched the men’s and women’s singles titles in the 25th YGTTA Open Table Tennis championships, which concluded at the Sachin Tendulkar Indoor Hall in Barabarti Stadium here Tuesday.
Asif registered an emphatic 4-0 victory over brother Tausif Haque of ESI while Ananya spanked Poushali Ghatak of AG Orissa by an identical margin.
The cadet boys’ singles final was won by Ayush Mohanty of Bhubaneswar, who beat citymate Animesh Sahoo 3-1. In the youth boys’ singles M Eeshwar Rao of Cuttack emerged champion after thrashing Arya S Mahaprasastha of the same town 4-0. The junior boys’ singles event was won by Krishan Prusty of Bhubaneswar. Krishna prevailed over Eeshwar 4-0.
In the sub-junior boys’ singles final Sahil Suman Bhuyan of Cuttack got the better of Saswat Bal of Khurda 4-0.
In the State Inter-School TT Championship Sikriti Bhagat of Stewart School triumphed over Yoshita Jamula of Loyala School 3-0 to take the top honours in the senior girls’ singles category. Saswat Bal of DM School emerged victorious in the senior boys’ singles after scraping past Abinash Tripathy of BJEM School 3-1.
Meanwhile debates continued to rage over Ananya’s participation in most of the state meets as she doesn’t stay in Orissa and only comes from Kolkata at the time of the events. Ananya, who is the daughter of former national champion Arup Basak, however, was oblivious to the discussions about her.
“No one has told me anything on my face and there have been no official complaints against me,” she told this correspondent after her women’s singles final. Ravi Parida, the secretary of the Orissa State Table Tennis Association (OSTTA), on the other hand pointed out that since Ananya’s father works for AG Orissa in Bhubaneswar, she is eligible to play in the tournament.
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