TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Singapore A defeated the combination of Iran-Kazakhstan 3-1 to win the junior boys team gold at 2014 Indian Junior and Cadet Open Table Tennis Championships at Mukherjee Stadium, Taleigao Plateau, on Wednesday.
India A girls made amends for the loss by boys by winning the junior girls title as they exacted revenge from Singapore with a 3-0 verdict in the last league game.
The Singapore’s boys team made a mockery of the Iran-Kazakh combination, but not before Kirill Gerassimenko, who qualified from here for the Youth Olympics Games at Nanjing in August, shocked his Singaporean rival Lim Zheng 3-0. Before things could go out of hands, Yin Jing Yuan reversed the trend with a 3-1 win in the second singles. Then he combined with Lim in the doubles to go 2-1 up, leaving Yin to drive the final nail in the Iran-Kazakh coffin.
For India A girls, it was some struggle but they were focused well on the day as Sagarika Mukherjee outsmarted Yee Herng Hwee 11-6, 11-9, 13-15, 4-11, 11-8. After that Suthirtha Mukherjee came from behind to outplay Tay Huil Li 9-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-8 and then the two Indians combined well to overcome the Tay-Yee pair in four sets of 6-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-9 to stamp their authority.
In cadet boys, Singapore A defeated India A 3-0 to be the league table topper and win the gold as the top Indian team had to satisfy itself with the silver. But India B, despite losing to Singapore, managed to finish third and win the bronze.
On Tuesday, they had beaten Sweden 3-2 and India C 3-1.
India A, with Manav Thakkar and Akaash Nath were found wanting against a solid display put up by Singapore’s Tan Lucacs and Poh Shao Feng Ethan. Manav lost his opening singles to Tan 4-11, 11-8, 8-11, 10-12 and the Akaash went down to Poh 3-11, 7-11, 8-11.
In the doubles, however, the Singapore’s pair struggled a bit before winning 11-9, 5-11, 11-7, 12-14, 8-11.
India B, who lost to the eventual winners, were somewhat off colour today. They failed against the tough Singaporeans — Tan Lucac and Poh Shao Feng Ethan — losing in straight sets. Jeet Chandra started the proceedings and went down to Poh 7-11, 12-10, 3-11.
Though Jeet did show some glimpses of fighting qualities, he was unable to take the crucial points in the second game. Thereafter, he lost his momentum, paving the way for Singapore to open the lead.
Then Snehit Suravajjula lost to Tan Lucas but with some good fight. After losing the first game 7-11, he rallied himself to give it back to Tan by extending the second game. He did try hard in the third but the Singapore’s boy proved too good as he won 11-7, 12-10, 11-8. The doubles proved be a mere formality for the Singapore duo which won 11-3, 11-8, 11-7.
In the cadet girls section, it was India all the way finishing 1-2-3 with no entries from other participating nations. Expectedly India A, with the likes of Aishwarya Pathak and Abhinaya Ramesh, won gold but India B’s Archana Kamath and Amrute Shruti did give them a scare with a 3-2 score line.
Aishwarya began on a wrong note losing to Archana 4-11, 6-11, 8-11 before Abhinaya pulling off a 12-10, 11-5, 11-6 win over Amrute. Then the India A pair won their doubles to go 2-1 up but Amrutea leveled the score with a victory over Aishwarya (11-6, 11-6, 11-6). It was left to Abhinaya to clinch the issue for India A as she beat Archana 9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-7.
