Baboor-Basak face-off again

MYSORE, June 4: Old rivalry at a new venue would be the most apt description for the table tennis events beginning tomorrow at these Games....

MYSORE, June 4: Old rivalry at a new venue would be the most apt description for the table tennis events beginning tomorrow at these Games. National champion Chetan Baboor, of Karnataka, and India No. 2 Arup Basak renew their fight for top honours in the men’s singles event. The two incidentally are employed by Petroleum Sports Control Board, but will be on opposite sides here.

A look at the rankings issued by the National federation on the eve of the start does not allow a keen follower to look beyond the two as far as the battle for the gold is concerned. Of course, young V Srinivasan and S Raman could upset the applecart.

The women’s section is, however, wide open with National champion M S Mythili, Anindita Chakraborty and B Bhuvaneshwari being the top contenders. But the 13-year-old Mouma Das, having beaten all top players recently , will be the one to look out for.

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TEAM EVENTS: But before the top players fight it out for individual honours, they will from Thursday go through the team events in the oven-like indoor stadium. The top eight teams from the Thane Nationals in each section have been drawn into two groups with the top two from each group making it to the next stage for the criss-cross semi-finals.Tamil Nadu and Bengal start favourites for the team gold, both having a star-studded line-up.

In the women’s section, defending champions Tamil Nadu have Mythili, BHuvaneshwari, N R Indu and Arul Selvi — all amongst the top 10 in the country. It is only from Bengal, who have Anindita, Poulomi Ghatak and Kasturi Chakraborty, that the TN girls can expect any challenge. As per the official list, Mouma’s name was missing from the Bengal list, but that looks to be more of a mistake.

The Bengal men, on the contrary, will not hope to play second fiddle. Basak will lead the challenge in the team event and his teammates, Arjun Dutta, Amit Mukherjee, Subhojit Saha and Randan Chakraborty, should lend ample support in their title quest.

Tamil Nadu have the potential to win the team gold with Raman, the talented V Srinivasan and N Ravichandran in their side.