Manika Batra and Soumyajit win U 21 titles at the Brazil Open Table Tennis tournament

Manika Batra and Soumyajit Ghosh won the U 21 Girls and Boys titles at the Brazil open.
While Manika beat the host nation's Caroline Kumahara 11:5, 9:11, 12:10, 11:5 and 11:5, Soumyajit over came Benjamin Brossier of France in seven tough sets 8:11, 6:11, 11;7, 11:6, 9:11, 11:7 and 11:2.
Incidentally, Soumyajit beat G Sathiyan also of India, who won the bronze medal.

All in all, the Indian players ensured a rich medal haul with Ankita Das reaching the finals (to be played today), again beating Caroline Kumahara and Harmeet Desai (semi finals). Ankita Das faces the very strong Elizabeta Samara of Romania, who recently achieved the rare feat of an European reaching a World Cup final.

Photo source: ittf.com

Brazil are favorites at the Latin American Table Tennis Championships at San Salvador

Brazil tops the seedings list in both the men's and women's team events at the Latin American championships.

In the Men's section, their team boasts of the famous trio of Thiago Monteiro, Cazuo Matsumoto, and Gustavo Tsuboi. Argentina represented by Rodrigo Gilabert, Diego Temperley, Pablo Tabachnik, and Gaston Alto, who finished runner up last time, will aim at upsetting the more established Brazlians.

In the Women's events, Caroline Kumahara, Ligia Silva, and Jessica Yamada will work at retaining the title.