Indian men in contention, women bow out in singles

New Delhi, September 30, 2015: As expected, all the Indian players entered the round of 128 in men’s singles of the the Asian Table Tennis Championships at Pattaya (Thailand), which began today. But it was curtains for all the female players who bowed out of the singles, including Mouma Das and Ankita, who had survived to enter the round of 32.

Sanil Shetty, Soumyajit Ghosh, Achanta Sharath Kamal and G. Sathiyan had all made it a one-sided affair against their opponents in the round of 128, but Harmeet Desai had to overcome a tough opponent in Laos’ Thavisack Phathaphone 11-6, 11-5, 6-11, 8-11, 11-6. But in the round of 64, he will take on Korea’s Minhveok Kim.

Shetty beat Pakistan’s Asm Qureshi 11-6, 11-2, 11-7, 11-9 and will next meet Kwan Kit Ho of Hong Kong in the next round. Ghosh, who scored an easy 11-5, 11-4, 11-2, 11-2 win over Turkmenistan’s Denis Kuzmenko, will face Chanakam Udomsilp from Thailand.

Sharath, who accounted for Oman’s Said Al Qarani 11-4, 11-5, 11-3, 11-1, has his next opponent in Qatari Fahed Almughanne while G. Sathiyan, who beat Salah Al-Balooshi 11-6, 11-4, 11-5, 11-3, takes on Muhamad Ashraf Haiqal from Malaysia. Sathiyan had beaten the Malaysian comfortably at the last Commonwealth championships in New Delhi in 2013.

All over, bar the shouting

Among the women team members, Ankita Das and Mouma Das survived to enter the round of 32, but both lost to their top-ranked opponents, Japanese Mima Ito and Chinese Chen Meng, respectively. The Japanese accounted for Ankita 4-2 (15-17, 11-5, 11-6, 11-6, 10-12, 11-3) in a keen battle where the Siliguri girl gave real torrid moments to her Japanese rival. But the experienced Ito proved too good in the end.

But Chen made a mere formality against Mouma, despite the latter taking a game off her opponent, to win 11-6, 11-7, 5-11, 15-13, 11-5.

Ankita beat Iran’s Mahjobech 11-7, 11-5, 11-8, 11-8 in the round o 64. Similarly, Mouma beat her first-round Vietnam opponent Thi Nga Nguyen in two extended points games, downed Iran’s Neda Shahsavari 11-4, 6-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-4, 11-5. The Iranian almost took the Indian to the brink, including winning the third game 12-10 to go 2-0 up, but Mouma’s experience came in the way.

In contrast to the two, Manika Batra, K. Shamini and Pooja Sahasrabudhe all exited in the round of 64 despite posting comfortable triumphs over their first-round opponents in the round of 128.

After beating Shamin Minara of Bangladesh in straight games in the first round, Manika found the going against Thailand’s Tamolwan Khetkhuan. But the Indian fought really well and kept her hopes alive until the fifth game to lead 3-2 However, the Thai girl fought taking the match to a full distance and winning it 5-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 11-8, 11-9.

But for Manika’s encounter in the round of 64, both Pooja and Shamini surrendered meekly to better opponents in Thailand’s Orawan Paranang and Japanese Saki Tashiro, respectively. Shamini won 4-0 against Sisangvan Pimmayoun of Laos but went down to Saki by a similar score (11-9, 11-6, 11-6, 11-4). Pooja, who beat Kazakhstan’s Gulchekhra Khusseinova 11-8, 11-5, 11-4, 11-7, lost to Orawan 2-11, 6-11, 5-11, 8-11 to bow out of contest in the women’s singles event.

TTFI Press release