Team Herald
PANJIM: Three Indian paddlers, two women and one man, made it to the singles main draw of the first ever World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender Goa, as the two-day qualifiers concluded at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium, Taleigao on Tuesday.
Teenager Yashaswini Ghorpade led the Indian qualifying charge, as all the three Indians locked horns with higher ranked opponents across two matches in the day to make it a memorable first qualifier of a home WTT event.
The main draws for WTT Star Contender Goa will be played from March 1 to 5. Yashaswini, the youngest of the three qualifiers was also the first to go through in the women’s singles. She bagged the scalp of two Koreans on her way, first Cheonhui Joo, ranked 103rd, in round two and then Nayeong Kim, ranked 104th. While it took her four games to beat Joo (3-1:11-7,11-6,9-11,11-8), Kim proved tougher and stretched the youngster to the full five games for a 3-2 (11-6,1-11,5-11,11-5,11-7) result. Yashaswini is currently ranked 196th in the world.
“I am qualifying for the first time in a Star Contender tournament and I am really happy. Beating a good player has helped me gain good experience which is such a great thing. I am thankful to my coaches and my parents and whoever supported me in today’s match,” said Yashaswini after her win.
The next Indian to go through was Sutirtha Mukherjee, presently ranked 147th in the world. She first blanked Chinese Taipei’s Li Yu-Jhun (world rank 92nd) 3-0 (11-9,11-8,11-6) in round two and then beat Korea world number 107 Eunhye Lee 3-1 (11-9,6-11,11-6,11-8), in round three to make the round of 64. While she meets compatriot Suhana Saini in the main draw, Yashaswini will be up against world number 38 Japanese Miyu Nagasaki.
Harmeet Desai was the lone Indian to qualify for the main draw from the men’s singles qualifiers. He was stretched to the hilt by both his opponents. First, German world number 99, Fanbo Meng took him the distance (3-2:11-5,11-13,11-9,9-11,9-11) and then 84th ranked Argentine Horacio Cifuentes, forced another 3-2 (11-7,9-11,11-7,8-11,11-5) result from the 29-year-old senior paddler from Surat.
“Playing at home definitely helps as there has been a lot of crowd support since the first match itself. The games have been very competitive and that has kept me on my toes which also made me push myself more. I have played against these guys before and have lost to Horacio before, so I had my game plan before going into the game today. I am happy that my plan worked out well and I would like to continue," said Harmeet.