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Ambika Sitram, contesting in her first major final, fought off a match point to win the Division A women’s title in the Classified Table Tennis Championship on Saturday night in Tacarigua’s Eastern Regional Sports Center.
The WASA Club player overcame a two-game deficit to defeat Imani Edwards-Taylor in the championship match 3-11, 11-7, 10-12, 13-11, 11-7 after losing to her in four games earlier in the day in the round-robin group round.
Sitram, who had already lost a game point in the third, did so once more in the fourth, had to save a match point at 11-10, and then racked up the final three points to force a tie-breaker.
The petite player, whose previous best effort at this level came last competition, when she advanced to the National Championships semifinals in November, almost led the entire match to hand Edwards-Taylor another heartbreaking loss.
In the Silverbowl Championship final in August, 17-year-old Edwards-Taylor lost to her aunt Aleena Edwards after failing to convert two straight match points. Three months later, Aleena Edwards defeated Edwards-Taylor in a best-of-seven final at “Nationals” after coming back from being down two games and 10-7 in the third.
In Saturday’s group round, Sitram, who had defeated Edwards-Taylor in three consecutive games during national trials last month, was on her way to forcing a fifth game, but she was unable to secure an 8-4 advantage and was beaten 12-10, 11-8, 10-12, 12-10.
As the sport resumed in the second half of last year, Brittany Joseph—the nation’s top-ranked female player before the epidemic struck in March 2020—returned after missing the two main events. The 24-year-old was in the more difficult group and appeared to be rusty as she lost 11-6, 11-9, 14-12 against Imani-Taylor as well as to Sitram, who had been out for some time before to the epidemic, 11-8, 6-11, 11-9, and 15-13.
Merle Baggoo too had a failed comeback as the 1964 national champion, now in her mid-70s, was defeated by Linda Partap-Boodhan 11-2, 11-5, 11-3, and Priyanka Khellawan 10-12, 11-7, 11-3, 11-4.
When this competition was previously held four years ago Partap-Boodhan stunningly saved a few match points to defeat Joseph and win the championship. However, now in her late 40s she ended up losing three of her four matches.
After their participation in the qualifying competition for the CAC (Central America and the Caribbean) Games in Guyana last month, Khellawan and Edwards-Taylor both went on to represent the nation in the Caribbean Open and U-19 Championship.
