Third seeds China won the junior girls’ title with an upset victory over India ‘A’, while top seeds India ‘A’ won the junior boys’ crown, in the US $8000 Reliance India Junior and Cadet Open Table Tennis Championships, at the NSCI-Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel stadium in Mumbai on Thursday.
China rallied from the loss of the opening singles, where Li Anqi lost to world No 30 Manika Batra, to snatch an exciting 3-1 win over the favourites, in the process beating the hosts for the second time in two days.
Yanmei Yang won the second singles over world No. 60 Suthirtha Mukherjee before pairing with Anqi to win the doubles for a 2-1 lead.
Delhi lass Batra frittered away an envious 2-0 advantage against Yanmei in the crucial fourth singles when she lost her way midway via a slew of errors through a riveting contest.
Yanmei endured the early setback following a flurry of winners by Batra on both flanks and recovered brilliantly to force the decider and snatch a surprise win for China.
“I needlessly put myself under pressure,” reasoned a visibly disappointed Batra.
“After enjoying the 2-0 lead I was eager to finish off the match. Much to my discomfort, Yang slowed down the game and looked surprisingly calm even while trailing. Also, we should have won the doubles. But, overall, I am happy with my game. Beating Anqi in the opening singles was a good result for me.”
Led by India junior No. 1 Abhishek Yadav and No. 2 Sudhanshu Grover, India ‘A’ lived up to reputation to win the junior boys’ title with a 3-0 win over surprise finalists India ‘E’ that had Sanish Amberkar and Chinmay Datar.
Meanwhile, favourites India ‘A’ teams won the Cadet boys and girls’ titles.
Earlier, India ‘C’ shocked India ‘B’ 3-1 in the Cadet boys’ semi-finals.
India C’s Lalhunhlua stunned world No. 36 Arjun Ghosh 3-0, before Lalrin Puia upset India No. 5 Ayush Tayal by the same margin for a 2-0 cushion.
Sub-junior national silver medallist Ghosh and Guatemala junior and Cadet Open silver medallist Tayal snatched the following doubles in a five-game thriller, but Puia clinched the crucial fourth singles tie over Ghosh in another 3-2 thriller, after leading 2-1, to set up a title clash with India ‘A’, who halted China with a 3-1 win in the other semi-final.
India ‘E’ caused the other upset of the day when they stunned favourites India ‘B’ to enter the junior boys’ final.
Chinmay Datar upset Sabhya Virmani 3-0, while Sanish Ambekar rallied to shock 2011 Cadet runner-up Utkarsh Gupta 3-1 in a riveting contest with all four games going down to the wire.
Gupta lost again, in straight games to Datar in the fourth singles tie.
Results:
Junior boys’ final: India A bt India E 3-0 (Sudhanshu Grover bt Chinmay Datar 11-9, 11-8, 11-6; Abhishek Yadav bt Sanish Ambekar 11-4, 11-5, 11-7; Grover/Yadav bt Ambekar/Datar 11-5, 12-10, 11-8.
Semi-finals: India A bt India C 3-0 (Abhishek Yadav bt Rohit Rajasekhar 6-11, 11-8, 11-2, 11-6, Sudhanshu Grover bt Sameera Kumar 12-10, 11-7, 4-11, 11-6, Yadav/Grover bt Rohit/Sameera 11-2, 11-8, 11-8
India E bt India B 3-1 (Chinmay Datar bt Sabhya Virmani 11-7, 12-10, 11-9, Sanish Ambekar bt Utkarsh Gupta 9-11, 12-10, 11-9, 14-12, Sanish/Datar lost to Sabhya/Utkarsh 12-10, 7-11, 9-11, 3-11, Chinmay Datar bt Utkarsh Gupta 11-7, 11-8, 11-5.
Junior girls’ final: China bt India A 3-1 (Li Anqi lost to Manika Batra 5-11, 5-11, 11-6, 5-11; Yanmei Yang bt Suthirtha Mukherjee 11-3, 11-3, 11-8; Anqi/Yang bt Mukherjee/Batra 11-6, 11-4, 11-8; Yang bt Batra 8-11, 11-13, 12-10, 11-3, 11-5.
Semi-finals: China bt China-India 3-0 (Anqi Li bt Senhora D’Souza 14-12, 11-4, 11-8, Yanmei Yang bt Xiaotong Sun 11-7, 11-3, 9011, 11-8, Li/Yang bt D’Souza/Sun 11-4, 11-7, 11-7.
India A bt India B 3-0 (Manika Batra bt Ayhika Mukherjee 5-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-6, Suthirtha Mukherjee bt Reeth Tennison 11-6, 7-11, 11-5, 11-9, Manika/Suthirtha bt Ayhika/Reeth 11-9, 13-15, 12-10, 11-9.
Cadet boys’ final: India A bt India C 3-1 (Boro Birdie lost to Lalhunhlua 4-11, 7-11, 8-11; Anirban Ghosh bt Lalrin Puia 11-9, 11-8, 11-5; Boro/Ghosh bt Lalhunhlua/Puia 11-8, 11-6, 11-6; Ghosh bt Lalhunhlua 11-5, 11-5, 10-12, 11-8.
Semi-finals: India A bt China 3-1 (Boro Birdie bt Yuhao Wang 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 8-11, 13-11, Anirban Ghosh bt Beizeng Wang 11-9, 12-10, 6-11, 11-13, 11-7, Boro/Ghosh lost to Yuhao/Beizeng 4-11, 6-11, 11-13, Anirban Ghosh bt Yuhao Wang 14-12, 8-11, 11-9, 5-11, 12-10.
India C bt India B 3-1 (Lalhunhlua bt Arjun Ghosh 11-9, 11-7, 11-8, Lalrin Puia bt Ayush Tayal 11-6, 11-6, 11-3, Lalhunhlua/Puia lost to Arjun/Ayush 3-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-5, 7-11, Lalrin Puia bt Arjun Ghosh 11-5, 2-11, 11-4, 5-11, 11-7.
Cadet girls’ final: India A bt India B 3-1 (Clange Ravichandran bt Sreeja Akula 6-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-8; Sagarika Mukherjee bt Moumita Dutta 11-3, 7-11, 11-6, 11-7; Ravichandran/Mukherjee lost to Akula/Dutta 12-10, 11-4, 6-11, 6-11, 7-11; Sagarika Mukherjee bt Akula 11-6, 7-11, 11-9, 10-12, 12-10.
Semi-finals: India B bt Hong Kong-India Sreeja Akula bt Aishwarya Pathak 11-7, 4-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-5, Moumita Dutta bt Desiree Hung 12-10, 11-9, 11-6, Sreeja/Moumita bt Aishwarya/Hung 11-6, 6-11, 11-4, 17-15.
India A bt India C 3-0 (Clange Ravichandran bt A. Naina 12-10, 11-7, 11-9, Sagarika Mukherjee bt Shruti Vijay Amrute 11-9, 5-11, 8-11, 17-15, 11-2, Calange/Sagarika bt Naina/Shruti 12-10, 12-10, 11-9.
Image: India A’s Sudhanshu Grover and Abhishek Yadav who won the junior boys' crown
