Star paddler Sharath Kamal secured his 10th national title with a 4-3 win over Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in the men’s singles summit clash at the 83rd Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships here on Monday.
Sharath rallied brilliantly to win 7-11, 12-10, 9-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-6. “Tenth is always special, and I will cherish this moment as I did with my first title,” Sharath later said.
In the women’s singles final, Sreeja Akula wore down Mouma Das 4-1 to win her maiden national crown, becoming the first woman from Telangana to achieve the feat.
Sreeja, who won her first national ranking title in 2019 during the North Zone championships at Sonipat and followed it up with another crown at Thane, has come a long way.
Last year, Sreeja lost out on the national title to Manika Batra at Panchkula. “A dream-come-true occasion for me, and the week-long camp in Chennai (with Sharath, Manav Thakkar and others) has yielded the desired result,” said Sreeja, the WTT Doha doubles bronze medal winner.
