Syndrela Das, the young table tennis player from West Bengal endeared herself to most of us at Edugraph when we met her for the 18 under 18 awards. But now Syndrela has gone on to add another feather to her cap by winning the Youth Girls Under-15 crown with a 3-0 score in the UTT National Ranking Championships held at the Firefox Sports and Resorts facilities. She defeated her opponent M. Hansini of Tamil Nadu to make it to the top.
In the semis, Syndrela escaped by the skin of her teeth playing against Divyanshi Bowmick from Maharashtra. But the West Bengal girl displayed better skills and came up trumps in crunch situations that altered the course of the semis. Hansini had no such problems and easily beat Kavya Bhatt, also from Maharashtra.
In the finals, Syndrela faced offed against Hansini. In the first game, the Tamil Nadu girl offered stiff competition with the game ending in a deuce(or a tie). But Syndrela soon cashed in with deft placings, forcing Hansini to wonder what hit her. In the second game, Cinderella won but it was still quite close. With a 2-0 cushion, Syndrela then finished it off quickly.
The results of the game were as follows:
U-15 Youth Girls: Final: Syndrela Das (WB) bt M. Hansini (TN) 12-10, 11-9, 11-7.
Semi-finals: Syndrela Das bt Divyanshi Bowmick (Mah) 12-10, 12-10, 6-11, 11-8; M. Hansini bt Kavya Bhatt (Mah) 11-4, 17-15, 11-8.
Syndrela represented West Bengal as the No 1 paddler in U15, U17 and U19 Girls and as No 3 paddler in the Womens category. She also participated in mixed doubles with his club-mate Oishik Ghosh and reached the Top-16 where they lost against RBI pair Ahikya Mukherjee and Raj Mondal.
In U17 she reached the Top 16 where she lost against Nandini Saha of NCOE, Kolkata, whom she beat at district level tournament at Kolkata and snatched the Championship title in U19, before going to Hyderabad.
In U19, after qualifying as group topper, she lost against Sayali Wani of Maharashtra at the Round of 32 and in Women's. After qualifying as group topper she then lost against Jennifer Vargese of Maharashtra.
We spoke to Syndrela and besides the support of her parents, she expressed her gratitude towards Mr. C K Dhanuka, Chairman of the Dhanuka Dhunseri Group. Mr Dhanuka has been instrumental in her preparation for the Olympics, supporting her in every aspect starting from sending her to Europe for advanced training, and participating in various World TT Youth Contenders, as well as providing her with equipments and kits when required.
