The Indian women team, on the other hand, made hara-kiri of
a good opportunity and went down 2-3 in the semifinals to England , who will take on Singapore in the final. The
defending champions, keeping their top billing intact, simply disposed of Malaysia
3-0.
Both India
and Malaysia
will be placed joint third and are entitled to the bronze medals.
The two the semifinals, involving the Indians, threw up more
anxious moments than any thrills as India began rather on a bad note.
World No. 69 Achanta Sharath Kamal, who lost 10-12, 11-4, 10-12, 9-11, was very
tentative against Samuel Walker, ranked 545 in the world, and it was telling
upon his game. After leading 7-4 and then 10-9 he allowed Walker to overwhelm him in the first game.
Though he managed to win the next at 11-4, the Indian’s psyche was nowhere near
his best and it allowed Walker
to walk away with the match.
But Soumyajit Ghosh was on a different planet on the day.
Unleashing his blistering forehands and mixing them with clever blocks, the
national champion took complete control over Andrew Baggaley to win in straight
games of 11-7, 11-8, 11-4. Ghosh kept raising his game as he went about
punishing the error-prone Baggaley who struggled to keep pace with the Indian.
After losing the first two games, the top-ranked English player (145) here
could not pull himself up as he lost the third game meekly, managing just four
points.
Harmeet Desai found the defensive Daniel Reed hard to
contend with. Desai was patchy, to say the least, though some of his backhand
strokes caught Reed on the wrong foot. Yet, his 2-3 loss brought back more
pressure on the Indian camp as the onus was on Sharath to win his game against
Baggaley to give India
semblance of a chance. Sharath, who had never lost to Baggaley, did precisely
that and won 3-0 to leave India ’s
fortunes in Ghosh’s hands. The national champion did not let the country down
as he beat Walker
3-0. Though Walker
extended Ghosh in the second game to 12-10, the result was never in doubt.
“I started badly, but we are happy to end on a winning
note,” said Sharath Kamal. Giving full credit to Ghosh, Sharath said: “Ghosh
was in a great form today he couldn’t have gone wrong on the day,” added
Sharath.
Ghosh, on the other hand, praised everyone saying it was a
great team effort. “I was confident against Baggaley because I had beaten
him at Dortmund world championships where we
beat England
for the same score (3-2). Once Sharath bhaiyya won his reverse
singles, I was sure we will win the rubber. Even Harmeet played a good game,
but was unfortunate he lost,” said Ghosh.
Even before the Indian women began their semifinal match,
the team was low on confidence with India ’s No. 1 player K. Shamini not
making it to playing line-up. It ultimately rubbed on the players and despite
brave efforts from Neha Aggarwal, who has kept a clean slate so far, and Mouma
Das India
had to bow out with the bronze medal.
“Shamini was lacking in confidence and was carrying some
niggles. She wanted to play the third singles. Bur we couldn’t risk playing
her,” explained coach Bhawani Mukherjee. But asked why Madhurika was preferred
over Neha as the second plyer, he said: “We thought a good defensive and
offensive player would come in handy, but she could not come up to
expectations,” said the coach.
Mouma, playing a see-saw match against Kelly Sibley, managed
to extend her English rival but lost 3-2. Madhurika Patkar went down in
straight games to Joanna Parker with the latter completely outplaying her.
However, it was Neha who provided India the little spark with a
top-shot game to beat Hannah Hicks 3-2. Mouma, making amends for the
initial loss, brought her experience to the fore to beat Joanna 3-0. But
Madhurika, despite raising a vision of recovery by India , went down to a superior
Kelly 11-4, 2-11, 9-11, 6-11.
The singles events, which began this afternoon
with qualifiers, will see how many make it to the main draw which start
tomorrow.
Results (Semifinals):
Men: India bt England 3-2 (Sharath Kamal lost to Samuel
Walker 10-12, 11-4, 10-12, 9-11, Soumyajit Ghosh bt Andrew Baggaley 11-7, 11-8,
11-4, Harmeet Desai lost to Daniel Reed 5-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5, 7-11, Sharath
Kamal bt Andrew Baggaley 11-9, 11-7, 11-7, Soumyajit Ghosh bt Samuel Walker
11-7, 12-10, 11-6), Singapore bt Scotland 3-0 (Zhan Jian bt Sean Doherty 11-3
11-9, 11-5, Li Hub t Craig Howieson 11-8, 11-6, 11-5, Chen Feng lost to Gavin
Rumgay 11-13, 10-12, 8-11, Zhan Jian bt Craig Howieson 11-8, 5-11, 11-9, 11-4).
Women: England bt India 3-1 (Kelly Sibley bt Mouma Das 11-5,
9-11, 14-12, 6-11, 11-7, Joanna Parker bt Madhurika Patkar 11-5, 6-11, 11-7,
Hannah Hicks lost to Neha Aggarwal 7-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-9, 9-11, Joanna Parker
lost to Mouma Das 4-11, 6-11, 3-11, Kelly Sibley bt Madhurika Patkar 4-11,
11-2, 11-9, 6-11), Singapore bt Malaysia 3-0 (Feng Tianwei bt Ting Hie Phim
11-6, 11-5, 11-4, Yu Mengyu bt Beh Lee Wei 12-10, 11-8, 11-1, Lin Ye bt Ho Ying
11-7, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8).
A TTFI Press release
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