Thakkar and Ghorpade Claim Maiden Singles Titles at 87th Senior National Table Tennis Championships

World No. 33 Manav Thakkar and eighth seed Yashaswini Ghorpade both claimed their first national singles titles at the 87th Senior National Table Tennis Championships, which concluded Saturday at the Abhay Prashal Indoor Stadium in Indore. Thakkar dispatched 15th seed Jeet Chandra of the Railway Sports Promotion Board 4-1 (11-2, 11-4, 6-11, 11-9, 11-3) in the men's final, while Ghorpade edged third seed Syndrela Das in a seven-game women's final, 4-3 (11-6, 12-14, 11-5, 9-11, 13-11, 6-11, 11-8). Both new champions represent the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, making it a clean PSPB sweep of the two singles crowns.

Thakkar, the top seed and a 5'10" paddler from Vadodara, Gujarat, was rarely troubled in the final. He raced through the opening two games 11-2 and 11-4 before Chandra briefly pushed back to take the third 11-6. The rally was short-lived: Thakkar closed out the fourth 11-9 and finished emphatically with an 11-3 fifth game. His path to the final included a straight-games dismantling of former national champion Harmeet Desai, also of PSPB, 11-8, 11-5, 11-7, 11-6. Chandra had reached the final the hard way, surviving a gruelling seven-game semifinal against Railways teammate Ronit Bhanja (11-8, 11-5, 8-11, 11-4, 7-11, 7-11, 11-7) after letting an early lead slip before regaining composure in the decider.

The women's final was a different kind of match entirely. Ghorpade, seeded eighth, opened with a comfortable 11-6 first game but Das responded sharply, taking the second 14-12 to level. The pattern continued through a five-game stretch that had momentum swinging on nearly every rally: Ghorpade took the third 11-5, Das reclaimed the fourth 11-9, and Ghorpade edged a tense fifth 13-11. Das then took the sixth 11-6 to force a decider, but Ghorpade held her nerve where it mattered most, closing out the seventh game 11-8. Ghorpade had beaten Suhana Saini of Haryana in the semifinals (6-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-8, 11-3), while Das reached the final by ousting defending champion Diya Chitale of RBI in her own seven-game semifinal, prevailing 13-11 in the deciding game after the pair split the previous six.

In the mixed doubles final, Ankur Bhattacharjee of West Bengal and Suhana Saini of Haryana beat the all-West Bengal pair of Aniket Bose and Sampriti Roy 3-2 (11-9, 11-7, 9-11, 13-15, 12-10), trading the last three games before sealing the title 12-10. Jeet Chandra and Anirban Ghosh claimed the men's doubles title, while Sutirtha Mukherjee and Kaushani Nath won the women's doubles.

The D Vishwa Trophy, awarded to the most promising young player at the Senior Nationals, went to Divyanshi Bhowmick, who reached the quarterfinals and pushed defending champion Diya Chitale to the brink in a closely contested match on Friday. Bhowmick's credentials at the junior level are already substantial: she holds the Under-15 singles gold from the Asian Youth Championships and the Under-19 title at the ITTF Youth World Championships.

The 87th edition closed with two new names on the national singles roll of honour and a roster of semifinalists young enough to suggest the competition for those titles will only tighten from here.