National Ranking Table Tennis: Ritvik Gupta, Ananya Muralidharan clinch U-17 titles

Ritvik Gupta of Delhi and Tamil Nadu’s Ananya Muralidharan produced contrasting performances to clinch the U-17 boys’ and girls’ titles respectively at the National Ranking Table Tennis Championships here on Sunday.

Ritvik had to dig deep to overcome West Bengal’s Aditya Das in a five-game final.

After clinching the first two games by narrow margins, Gupta saw Aditya fight back to level the contest at 2-2.

However, Gupta raised his game when it mattered most, dominating the decider to seal a 3-2 victory and claim the boys’ crown.

Ananya, meanwhile, showed composure and resilience to get past Karnataka’s Tanishka Kalbhairav in four games.

After taking the opening game, Ananya was pegged back as Tanishka levelled the match.

The Tamil Nadu paddler responded strongly in a closely fought third game before closing out the contest in the fourth to secure a 3-1 win.