Mumbai, Oct 16: Even as the India A boys made easy forays and established themselves as a strong gold medal contender in the Junior category, India A team’s junior girls were on shaky legs as they went down 0-3 to unranked Chinese players at the Reliance India Junior and Cadet Open here at the NSCI Stadium today.
But for this one aberration, the Indians in all other sections were very much in their zones and making the right noises. In fact, what Manika Batra with the world ranking of 30 and Suthirtha Mukherjee, ranked 60, failed to do in Group 1, both Reeth Tennison (158) and Ayhika Mukherjee (127) accomplished as India B beat the China-India combination in Group 2 to secure a semifinal spot ahead of the A team.
Indeed, it was not the kind of start that the hosts would have envisaged on the opening day of the 2013 ITTF global circuit event
here. Two unranked Chinese players Yanmei Yang and Anqi Li went about their demolishing job of both Suthirtha Mukherjee and Manika Batra in that order in just about 40 minutes.
Yang defeated Suthirtha 8-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-5 and Li outsmarted Batra 5-11, 11-6, 4-11, 11-6, 11-7 to forewarn that it will not be a cakewalk for the higher ranked Indians. Both Suthirtha and Mankia were guilty of playing into the Chinese hands who kept their basics right.
Suthirtha began promisingly taking the first game, only to lose the next three on the trot.
Manika, on the other hand, showed a lot of enterprise only to falter
as after winning the first and third games and leading 2-1, she succumbed to Li’s slow and cautious game plan. Li was excellent in
keeping the ball on the table while Manika, more often than not, only managed to put it back on the net. That was her undoing and, seizing the opportunity, Li just rolled over the Indian in style.
“She (Li) was too good with her backhand play. I was not able to play my shots and made far too many mistakes at the net,” said Manika. The lanky Indian, however, said that the team will make amends in the latter matches.
So far, the teams that have made it to the second stage include India A and B in Junior Boys, India A in Cadet Boys and India A and B teams in Cadet Girls. Two teams from each group will qualify for the semifinals to be played tomorrow morning with the finals to follow in the evening.
Overall the hosts have held sway over the rest in fray and are on way to sweeping the medal tally, expect for the India A girls who could end up with the silver. They are expected to meet the Chinese in the Junior Girls final.
In the Junior Girls, the Reeth and Ayhika had to put in the extra effort to win their group match against the India-China combination of Senhora D’Souza and Xiaotong Sun. One Chinese in that combine made all the difference with Sun winning both her singles.
However, with Senhora being the weak link, Reeth and Ayhika won their singles against the Mumbai girl and then beat the India-China duo in the doubles to book their semifinal slot.
In yet another match, India B fared well in the Cadet Boys section as they went past China, thanks to Ayush Tayal and Arjun Ghosh. Though Tayal lost his match to Yuhao Wang, Ghosh levelled the score by winning against Beizeng Wang.
After the Indians went 2-1 up after beating the Chinese pair in the doubles, Arjun had a tough ask against Yuhao in the reverse singles. Arjun, brushing aside a stiff challenge, won 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 12-10, 12-10, 11-7). (UNI)
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