Sharath Kamal
K Shamini
Mouma Das
Soumyajit Ghosh
Indian men, led by Achanta Sharath Kamal, beat Australia 3-1 in the morning session and carried
their good work in the evening to defeat South
Africa 3-0, while the women accounted for both Sri Lanka and Canada , blanking them out with
identical 3-0 verdicts.
In a way, for the hosts matches went along the expected
lines except the fact that Anthony Amalraj lost his match to Australian David
Powell 3-0 (7-11, 8-11, 8-11) in less than 20 minutes, but managed to put it
across South African Lume Abrahams 3-0 (9-11, 10-12, 5-11).
Sharath Kamal had to come to rescue of India as he won
against Kane Townsend and Powell, winning both his singles in straight sets.
Soumyajit Ghosh won his singles against Wade, the brother of Kane, 3-0.
As for the South Africans, India did not have any problem as
the world No. 70-ranked Sharath gave India a rousing start against Kurt
Lingeveldt with a 3-0 win, Amalraj followed it up with straight sets triumph
over Luke Abrahams and Ghosh completed the tash by beating Theo Cogill 3-0.
In the morning, Mouma Das, ranked 234 in the world,
took some time before settling down as she dropped the first game 13-15 to Sri Lanka ’s
Ishara Madurangi. The veteran Indian, however, disposed of her opponent by
taking next three games easily to provide India 1-0 lead.
Reigning national champion and world No. 275 K Shamini toyed
with her Lankan opponent Nuwani Vithanage who stretched the Indian in the
second game. Yet, the Indian went ahead to shut her out to win her fixture
11-7, 14-12, 11-8. In the final fixture, local girl Neha Aggarwal (428)
demolished Ridhmi Karadanaarachchi 11-4, 11-6, 11-5 to win the first match for
the hosts.
Against Canada ,
K Shamini and Mouma Das defeated Yuen Sara and Shirley Fu in their respective
matches to take India
to the top of the group. The hosts got a walkover in the final fixture as Canada ’s
Mo Zhang, ranked 170, did not turn up for the Championships.
Shamini was clinical in her approach to go past Sara 11-5,
11-5, 11-7. Though Mouma, still rusty, lost her game to Fu after winning the first
one, the Indian made amends to win the next two games to give India 2-0 lead.
Easy draw for Indian women
The Indian women paddlers have an easy draw in Stage 2,
which is the quarterfinal league, as they have been pooled together with Singapore , Wales
and Scotland
in Group E. This augurs well for them as they are expected to finish second in
the group behind Singapore
and possibly could run into England ,
the likely leader from Group F, in the semifinals. Malaysia ,
Australia and Sri Lanka
are the other teams in Group F.
Indian men, drawn in group F of Stage 2, have for company
Scotland, Northern Ireland and Malaysia
while group E has Singapore ,
England , Wales and either Australia
or South Africa ,
whose match is still in progress. Like in the women’s section, India could run into England
in the men’s category as Singapore
from group E is expected to lead the group.
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