Indore: Of the four from Chinese Taipei, all but one topped their group to enter the quarterfinals of the Cadet Girls singles event in ITTF 2016 India Junior and Cadet Open Table Tennis Championships at the Abhay Prashal here today. Their fourth girl Huang Yu-Jie did, however, qualify only to finish second in group 1 behind India’s Ishita Gupta.
This would mean, once again, the Indians could be at the receiving end from the Taipei girls who have been dominating the show so far after winning all team gold medals on offer yesterday. With two from each group qualifying, the presence of Indians could not be denied.
In Cadet Boys, Taipei paddlers took the top perch in their groups while Indian Manush Shah and Yashansh Malik qualified for the main draw from group 2 which did not have a Taipei boy. It is to be seen how far the Indians will go after the quarterfinal draw is made.
However, there is no respite in other categories either with Taipei’s Junior Boys and Junior Girls doing exceedingly well to leave India fighting for lesser medals yet again.
In Cadet Boys, Shivjit Lamba had to really fight well to beat Alberto 3-2 but he could not qualify for the main draw as the second spot in group 1 was taken by Sohan Pandya who, after losing to Tai Ming-Wei of Taipei, won both his matches against Alebrto and Shivjit.
Pandya beat Alberto 3-1 but it was the match against Shivjit in round two which helped him make the cut. After the two had fought it off well taking alternative games, the matter came to the decider. And Sohan, keeping a good grip over his opponent, won 11-6, 8-11, 11-0, 9-11, 11-7.
There are another second round match between Taipei’s Hunag Hung-Chow against India’s Payas Jain that went down to the wire. It was surprising that the Indian was not able to take more than a solitary point in the opening game but he came back strongly in the second and third to lead 2-1. Stung by the reverse, Huang went into early lead and hurried with winning points to restore parity. In the decider, Payas despite playing well lost by minimal points, allowing the Taipei boy the passage he needed.
With the Taipei players ruling the India Open here, the home interests were confined to those contests where only the Indians involved. For instance, the first round match in Cadet Girls between Vanshika Bhargava and Tamini Sirtani went the full distance with Vanshika from Delhi winning 4-11, 11-8, 13-11, 8-11, 12-11. In Cadet Boys, Anukaram Jain, played well, but his opponent Huang proved to be a hard nut to crack as the latter won 9-11, 11-6, 1-11, 11-4, 13-11 in round one.
In Junior Girls’ tough first round match in group 1, Chang Ju-Chia outwitted her team mate Huang Yu-Jie 10-12, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9, 11-6 while Parth Virmani’s 2-3 (6-11, 11-6, 11-9, 8-11, 4-11) loss to Taiepi’s Tai Ming-Wei in the first round of Junior Boys also kept everyone interested.
Though the third round matches in both Junior Boys and Junior Girls pending, there is hardly any doubt about Taipei taking complete control when the knockout phase begins tomorrow morning.
