On Diya's day out, Snehit, Payas win maiden titles

Jammu : SFR Snehit, justifying his talent, finally became a worthy champion to lift the Youth Boys singles trophy when he decimated Shreyaans Goel of Delhi 4-0, while it was Diya Chitale's day out as she claimed the rare double at the 81st UTT Junior and Youth Nationals which concluded at the Indoor Hall of the M.A. Stadium here on Sunday.

Maharashtra's Diya, who won her third national crown, made it look as simple as it can get when she defeated Surbhi Patwari from Bengal A 4-1 in Youth Girls final, after she had blanked out Swastika Ghosh with equal felicity in Junior Girls final earlier.

In yet another first, Delhi's Payas Jain became the Junior Boys champion, beating Yashansh Malik, also from Delhi, 4-1 in what was another one-sided final.

Snehit, who missed a national title in Goa, played true to his potential against the left-handed Delhi boy who, despite making it to his maiden final, spilled the chance.

But then credit must be given to Snehit, who hit a nice rhythm right from the word go and won several points on good, long rallies, showing his consistency.

Shreyaans could neither adjust to the pace or slow down when his rival was capable of returning everything sent at him with speed. That was the Delhi boy's undoing and Snehit just cashed it on to romp home winners.

Diya, who was a qualifier in both sections, has the knack of carving out wins out of nowhere. The talented little girl's never-say-die attitude is her USP and her renowned rivals knew it full well.

After Swastika folded without making any worthwhile effort in Junior Girls title-clash, one expected Surbhi make the most of her second chance—she lost to Archana Kamath at Durgapur Nationals.

And Surbhi did begin well taking the first game after some struggle. However, Diya soon levelled the score and when she won the marathon third game 19-17, even Surbhi knew that he was destined to be the bride's maid and not the bride.

Diaya, cleverly engaging her Bengal rival, stepped on the gas pedal after going 2-1 up and completed the task without a fuss to get her second crown, too.

Payas, who knows Yashansh too well, had a good start and despite losing the second game gained lead soon enough to put his state mate down.

Yashansh, unable to come to terms with Payas' deep drives, especially his backhands, wilted under pressure to be satisfied with the silver he earned. It also helped Payas complete a double as he added Youth Boys doubles title to the singles crown he won.

In Youth doubles, the Delhi pair of Aadarsh Om Chetri and Payas Jain defeated their Mizoram opponents, Alberto Lrrutta and H. Jeho, but the Delhi duo had to really earn a 3-2 triumph in a tough encounter.

The Youth Girls crown went to Surbhi Patwari and Poymantee Baisya of Bengal A, who accounted for the Tamil Nadu pair of Selenadeepthi Selvakumar and Kowshika Venkatesan 3-1.

In Junior Boys doubles, it was Chinmaya Somaiya and Deepit R Patil from Maharashtra who beat their state mates, Raegan Albuquerque and Mandar Hardikar in straight games for the gold and Yashaswini Ghorpade and Anargya Manjunath, who won 3-1, beat the stuffing out of the Maharashtra duo of Diya Chitale and Swastika Ghosh after the latter almost threatened to stage a comeback.