Table tennis: Chandrashekhar Gole beats Animesh Joshi in thriller

Top seed Chandrashekhar Gole defeated Animesh Joshi in the quarterfinals of the Junior Boys’ (under 17) category in the ProTT Academy, Mumbai City District Table Tennis Championship at the University Stadium, Churchgate, on Friday. The match was a six game thriller and ended 4-2 (11-7 13-11 11-1 12-10 13-11 12-10).
Gole, who is an India top-16 player in the junior category, is an overwhelming favourite to win the competition. He believed that the game would be much easier than it turned out to be. “Animesh (Joshi) is inexperienced as he is three years younger to me, so I expected the game to finish much earlier. I must confess that he really surprised me with his control and quick foot moments. He is a player to look out for in the future,” Gole said.

Joshi was pleased with his performance in the game despite ending up in defeat. “He (Gole) is a very good player. I am happy that I managed to push the match to the sixth game.” Joshi is a fourth seed in the under-14 category in this tournament and has won the Mumbai District Sports Office table tennis tournament in the same category.

Former India player and coach, Kamlesh Mehta, who is also the joint secretary Mumbai City District Table Tennis Association was present to oversee the tournament. He was pleased with the proceedings and added, “The number of events in table tennis have increased in the city in the last three-four years as well as the number of participants. Last year a new category — under-10 was introduced in this tournament. The response in terms of the entries of participants was very encouraging.”

Mehta expressed his gratitude to Niraj Bajaj for providing sponsorship to various events such as the ProTT MCDTTC.