Favourites Sanmay, Mallika enter juniors finals

Mumbai: Top seeds Sanmay Paranjape of Pune and Mallika Bhandarkar of Nagpur entered the junior boys and girls singles finals respectively in the Bombay YMCA first State Ranking Table Tennis Tournament by winning tough semifinal matches.

Boys title-favourite Paranjape recovered after dropping the first game to overcome fifth seed Devdatta Phadnavis of Nagpur 9-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-6, 11-5 in the semi finals and would meet second seed Chandrashekhar Gole of Mumbai Suburban in the summit contest. Gole too had to wage a grim struggle before getting past sixth seed Hrishikesh Kulkarni of Thane 11-3, 9-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-7 in the other semi-final.Mallika faced stiff resistance before getting the better of fifth seed Shweta Parte of Mumbai City 11-8, 12-10, 11-9, 7-11, 8-11, 6-11, 11-4 in a see-saw junior girls semi-final. She would take on third seed Vedika Garg of Thane who beat second seed Charvi Kawle of Mumbai Suburban 11-6, 11-9, 11-6, 11-5 in the other semi-final. Bureau Report