Poulomi, Soumyajit lead India into quarterfinals

Macau, February 24, 2012: Women paddlers of the country made India proud as they entered the quarterfinals of the Asian Table Tennis Championships here on Tuesday morning, upsetting Thailand 3-0.

The men paddlers, on the other hand, overcame a tough Iran 3-2 to move into the quarterfinals where they will meet Chinese Taipei. Earlier, they had beaten in Group A both Bahrain and UAE with an identical 3-0 margin

Noshad Alamiyan, backbone of Iran, first accounted for Soumyajit Ghosh  11-7, 11-5, 11-9 in three straight games but Achanta Sharath Kamal  restored parity with an 11-5, 16-14, 11-3 win over Akhlaghpasand Mohammad Reza. Then national champion A.Amalraj downed Alamian Darounkolaei Nima 11-8, 7-11, 11-8, 11-6 to put India in the lead.

Achanta Sharath Kamal, however, lost his reverse singles to Alamiyan Daronkolaei Noshad 11-7, 9-11, 10-12, 6-11 and Ghosh played an altogether different game in the decider to beat Akhlaghpasand Mohammed Reza 11-8, 11-9, 11-4 and seal India a quarterfinal place.

However, the story of the day is the maiden entry of Indian women players into the champion division of the meet. They will now take on the Chinese who did a thoroughly professional job to decimate their opponents to take their appointed place.

Though it will be tough against champions, the Indian girls, particularly Poulomi Ghatak, can take pride in what they achieved this morning against Thailand. Mouma Das opened the proceedings by beating  Anisara Muangsuk in straight games of 11-9, 11-7, 12-10 while Poulomi kept the momentum by overcoming Nanthana Komwong with a 11-4, 14-12, 11-6 to give India a commanding lead.

In fact, this commanding lead proved decisive for Ankita Das who, despite losing a game to Suttlux Rattanaprayoon, won 14-12, 11-5, 10-12, 11-5, leaving Thailand to compete for the ninth place.

National coach Bhavani Mukherjee praised national champion Poulomi for the gutsy play she put up against her Thai opponent. “Poulomi was too good today with her attacking game that left her opponent clueless. This momentum also helped Ankita in the third rubber,” he said.

Earlier, drawn in Group C, India beat Turkmenistan 3-0 and blanked out neighbours Sri Lanka in a similar fashion to enter stag two. The format of the championships is that teams finishing first in each group progresses to the knockout stage with two finalists from there entering the champion division.

A TTFI Press Release