The promise remained just that a promise! The men's tennis final at the 34th National Games didn't become the contest it was supposed to be, Karan Rastogi getting past Tamil Nadu's Mithun Murali with surprising ease even as the women's title-clash produced a shock if you weren't following Ratnika Batra over the past couple of days.

The Delhi girl, who had accounted for second seed C Nidhi of Andhra Pradesh in the quarter-final and No. 3 Prerna Bhambri in the semi-final, swept past top seed Zainab Ali Sajjad 6-3, 6-2 on Wednesday to clinch gold.

In table tennis, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra lifted the team titles, Sharath Kamal powering the former to tight victories in the semi-final and the title clash while Maharashtra shocked Bengal 3-1 in the women's final. The Maharashtra men tamed Gujarat 3-1 for gold.

With Poulami Ghatak missing from their ranks, Bengal depended a great deal on Mouma Das but the two-time national singles champion lost both her matches. In contrast, Maharashtra's Madhurika Patkar won both her matches, against Nandita Saha and Mouma and Mamta Prabhu chipped in by defeating Mouma. Ankita Das won the only match for Bengal when she tamed Pooja Sahasrabudhe.

The men's semi-final between defending champions Bengal and Tamil Nadu made for an absorbing tussle, Sharath Kamal winning his two matches to take TN to the decider, where Bengal's Sourav Saha didn't have the patience or the game to tackle the relentless returns of R. Abishek, who must be the only defensive player in the country's table tennis

Rastogi, who will be flying out on Sunday to join his Davis Cup teamamtes in Serbia, won 6-3, 6-2, Murali never quite getting into the match to put the Maharashtra player under pressure. The man from Coimbatore was broken in the fourth game of the first set, the third and seventh games of the second set and was under severe pressure in a few others without being able to take Rastogi to break-point even once.

For most part of the match, it was a baseline duel with the two often just waiting for the other to make the mistake. Rastogi did set up a few points that he finished at the net but Murali just stayed pegged to the baseline.

Delhi girl Ratnika, broken in the very first game, bounced back to open a 4-1 lead before closing out the opening set. She again ran away to a 4-1 lead in the second set before Zainab needed attention for cramps in her right upper arm. Not quite herself, the Andhra girl could only watch Ratnika seal it without too much effort.

Bhavani Devi beat Reesha Puthusser in the all-Kerala final of the women's sabre at the fencing hall. The men's epee gold and silver went to Manipur with S Jayenta Singh getting the better of statemate N Sandhiraj S 15-12 in the final.

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