Manav Thakkar regains men’s TT title

VIJAYAWADA: Top-seeded Manav Thakkar defeated an injured G Sathiyan 4-2 to lift the men’s singles trophy while Sreeja Akula rallied to beat Archana Kamath and win the women’s crown in the UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships here on Saturday.

Sathiyan, the second seed, conceded the match in the sixth game when he was trailing 0-2 because of a back spasm. Nevertheless, he fought and opened well and even led 2-1.

But his back pain shot up sharply and rendered him helpless. Yet, the reigning national champion carried on for a while before conceding. Archana had things going her way in the final against top seed Sreeja.