Mumbai, Nov 9: Reeth Tennison and Manush Shah bagged the women’s and men’s singles titles respectively as India completed a grand double in the ITTF Ecuador International Open 2021 played at Cuenca, Ecuador, on Sunday.
Reeth clinched the gold medal by defeating compatriot Ankita Das 4-2 in the women’s singles final while Manush Shah defeated Juan Jesus Gomez of Mexico 4-1 in the men’s singles final. India also won silver medals in men’s and women’s doubles in a successful outing for the squad in Ecuador.
In the women’s singles final, the 26-year-old Reeth, a Mumbai-based TSTTA player, was engaged in a close tussle for Supremacy with 28-year-old Ankita, who started on a positive note by winning the opening game at the Complejo Deportivo Totoracocha, Cuenca.
But, Reeth showed plenty of determination and fought back strongly to win the second and third games to take a slender 2-1 lead.
Ankita drew level by snatching a tense fourth game in extra points before Reeth once again found her attacking form and knocked the fight out of her teammate Ankita by winning the next two games, thus wrapping up the contest with a 6-11, 11-4, 11-6, 16-18, 11-1 and 11-6 win.
India completed a grand double when Manush Shah defeated Juan Jesus Gomez of Mexico 4-1 in the men’s singles final. The 20-year-old Gujarat paddler Manush was in control against his 18-year-old Mexican rival and went on to close out the match with a creditable 11-7, 11-9, 11-13, 11-7, and 11-9 victory and claimed India’s second gold medal.
However, Reeth and Shah were both denied from adding another gold medal to their kitty. The Indian pair of Reeth and Ankita suffered a 1-3 (4-11, 11-6, 7-11, 13-15) defeat at the hands of the Mexican duo of Clio Barcenas Arantxa Cossio in the women’s doubles final.
Later, in the men’s doubles summit clash, Shah along with Sanil Shetty were unable to combine effectively and went down fighting to the Mexican combination of Juan Jesus Gomez and Dario Acre in a 5-game thriller. Juan and Dario held their nerves to carve out a deserving 3-2 (11-7, 4-11, 3-11, 11-9, and 11-8) victory.
In the men’s singles semi-finals, Shah beat Mexico’s Dario Arce 4-3 (11-6, 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-13 and 11-3) scores. (IANS)
