Diya Chitale and Swastika Ghosh finish runner-up

TUNIS: Indians Diya Chitale and Swastika Ghosh's splendid run came to an end at the World Table Tennis Youth Star Contender as the pair lost 0-3 to Russians Natalia Malinina and Elizabet Abraamian in the under-19 girls doubles final here.

Diya and Swastika lost 3-11, 6-11, 7-11. Earlier, they had made their way into the final after defeating Czech Republic's Linda Zaderova and Croatia's Hana Arapovic 8-11, 11-7, 11-6, 6-11, 11-9 in a semi-final match.

In the quarter-finals, Diya and Swastika had notched-up convincing victories against Belarus's Vera Volkava (11-9, 11-8, 11-9) and Russia's Natalia (12-10, 11-5, 6-11, 11-8) respectively.

Besides the runner-up finish in doubles, Maharashtra girls Diya and Swastika were also impressive in the under-19 singles as both finished their campaigns in the semi-finals after suffering identical 2-3 defeats in hard-fought encounters.

While the youth national champion Diya gave her all and made life tougher for Russian Vlada Voronina, before losing the thrilling contest 8-11, 11-7, 11-6, 8-11, 7-11, current junior national champion Swastika lost to Turkey's Ece Harac 11-8, 4-11, 11-9, 3-11, 6-11 in an intense contest.

Apart from Diya and Swastika, Preyesh Raj Suresh, Payas Jain and Deepit Patil competed in the boys category. Preyesh exited in the U-15 quarter-finals while Payas and Deepit, who competed in the U-19 category, reached the last-16 and group stage respectively.

Since the Covid-19 outbreak, it was the first international youth event for Indian players. IANS

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