India number three (Junior Girls) Manushree Patil led Maharashtra A to the gold in the junior girls’ team category of the 80th junior and youth national Table Tennis Championship after defeating Uttar Pradesh 3-1 in the finals at the DPS Hall in Sonepat on Thursday night.
The Maharashtra A team comprising of Manushree Patil, India No. 11 Diya Chitale, Pritha Vartikar and Aditi Sinha were at their best in the first round as they first defeated the team from Rajasthan in straight games, 3-0.
In their quarter final clash, they met Haryana who had earned a hard-fought 3-2 victory over powerhouses West Bengal to progress to the next round. But the lasses from Maharashtra continued their red-hot form as they towered over them too with an identical 3-0 win.
In the semifinal round too, the Maharashtra team won the clash in straight games as they defeated Karnataka’s team led by India No. 15 Yashaswini Ghorpade to book their final berth.
It was only in the finals that the Maharashtra team lost their first match of the tournament, but recovered well to beat the UP squad led by India number eight Radhapriya Goel and comprising of Ambika Gupta, Suhana Narjinary and Mahika Dixit.
