Best friends off the field, enemies on it

It’s always a problem when you face your training partner and good friend in the finals of an international tournament. The Jamaican rivalry of Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake is a classic example of that.

In the India Junior and Cadet Table Tennis Open held at NSCI on Sunday, best friends Sundhanshu Grover and Abhishek Yadav had to face the same problem when they took on each other in the Junior category finals.

Grover is India’s number two at the sub-junior level, while Yadav is number one. The saying that “better ranking doesn’t mean better results” stood true as Grover won 4-1 (11-2, 16-14, 12-10, 4-11, 11-7). However, he still is one short in the head-to-head department, with Yadav leading 6-5.

They’ve been friends for eight years and are each other’s biggest rivals. “Off the field, we have a lot of fun. Apart from TT, we both like to dance, and can bring the roof down with our moves. But when we face each other, it’s nothing short of a war,” Sudhanshu says.

And a war it was! With CM Prithviraj Chavan and industrialist Mukesh Ambani watching the game, Grover was in his elements, not missing any opportunity that came his way, while Yadav seemed too overwhelmed by the occasion. Grover attacked from both flanks, not allowing Yadav to gain even a slight momentum.

Yadav came back in the fourth game, but was ambushed by Grover in the fifth.

In the girls category, Sagarika Mukherjee almost had a fairytale of a day. After beating Sreeja Akula 3-2 to win the Cadet title, she lost to China’s Yanmei Yang 4-3 (11-6, 11-2, 11-4, 14-16, 9-11, 5-11, 12-10) in the Girl’s Junior finals. Being 0-3 down and nothing to lose, Sagarika didn’t give and took the match to the final game, only to lose 12-10.