India celebrate as Soumyajit, Manika win titles

New Delhi, August 11, 2013: India celebrated a rare success securing both the U-21 men’s singles and U-21 women’s singles titles at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Brazil Open at Santos.

After Manika Batra accounted for host nation’s Caroline Kumahara 11-5, 9-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-5 to take the Under-21 women’s singles crown in what turned out to be a one-sided affair in the final, Soumyajit Ghosh defeated Benjamin Brossier of France 8-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 9-11, 11-7, 11-2 in a thrilling seven games encounter to win the Under 21 men’s singles title. The Indians also pocketed $1500 each for their title wins.

“I have played Caroline before this year and won the team event in the Slovak Republic,” said Manika. “I started the match confidently and tried to play slowly as she is a strong attacking player,” added the Delhi girl.

Manika, a more matured player, varied her speed and used lot of backspin to dicated terms throughout the final. Unable to cope with her opponent’s bagful of tricks, Caroline succumbed to the disappointment of the hosts.

Earlier, Manika had prevailed over compatriot Suthirtha Mukherjee 11-5, 9-11, 12-10, 11-9, 8-11, 12-10 in a tense match.

Ghosh, who had beaten team mate G Sathiyan in the semi-finals 11-4, 11-7, 14-12, 9-11, 11-9 rather easily, knew Brossier was a hard nut to crack. Though Ghosh was up to the task, the Brazilian was time and again breathing down his neck in the final which saw fortunes fluctuating.

The Indian, however, had the measure of his rival, particularly in the decider, taking a 4-0 lead. Pumping his fist and more vocal with every point he secured through topspin, Ghosh stayed closer to the table to finish the job in style. Brossier was equally vehement in playing the attacking game but Ghosh emerged a notch better than his French rival.

What turned the corner at this juncture was the panicky ‘time out’ taken by the French. In fact, it worked to the Indian’s advance as he just allowed a couple of points before completing an Indian double. Ghosh, the reigning national champion, said after the win.

“I was able to win those crucial points which made the difference in the sixth game. After that I was very confident of winning the match,” said Ghosh.

GOLD FOR SAGARIKA

Meanwhile, Sagarika Ghosh won the Cadet Girls singles title while Birdie Boro had to be satisfied with the silver in the Cadet Boys singles at the Guatemala Junior and Cadet Open Table Tennis championships. Sagarika, the winner of South Asian Junior title recently, beat Sreeja 11-6, 11-5, 11-8 to take gold in the final.  Birdie Boro lost 9-11, 8-11, 5-11 to Cuban Livan Martinez in the final of the Cadet Boys singles event. Earlier Boro had beaten team mate Anirban Ghosh 3-0 to enter the final.

A TTFI Press release  

Desai, Manika, Ankita enter Brazil Open semis

New Delhi, August 10, 2013: Indian paddlers are making their presence felt at the ITTF World Tour Brazil Open being played at Santos as Harmeet Desai entered the Semi finals of the men’s singles today. Not to be left behind, both Manika Batra and Ankita Das too made it to the last four in the women’s singles.

Harmeet Desai defeated Brazilian Thiago Monteiro 4-3 (11-6, 8-11, 11-9, 5-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-9) in a tough battle to grab the semi-final spot but Soumyajit Ghosh failed to seal his spot in the semis when he lost to another Brazilian Hugo Calderano 3-4 (7-11, 11-9, 10-12, 11-7, 8-11, 8-11) despite leading 2-1.

Earlier, both G. Satiyan and Nitin Vasanth Philips had exited in the round of 16, losing to Thiago Monteiro and Cazuo Matsumoto, respectively. Ghosh had beaten hosts paddler Israel Barreto in straight games to move into the quarterfinals along with Desai who had outlasted Brazilian Humberto Manhani 4-3.

Desai had played exceptionally well to win his pre-quarterfinal and quarterfinal matches, both of which went to the wire. The Indian will now take on local challenter Gustavo Tsuboi in the semifinals.

With both Ankita Das and Suthirtha Mukherjee finding themselves drawn in the same half had to run into each other in the quarterfinal in which Ankita emerged the winner with a 4-2 (8-11, 12-10, 11-9, 7-11, 11-3, 11-8) verdict. Manika accounted for Jissica Yamada of Brazil 11-4, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5 without much sweat. Suthirtha had earlier eaten Livia Fontana in straight games in the round of 16. Kritiwica Sinha Roy too lost 2-4 to Jessica Yama in a gruelling fight in the pre-quarterfinals.

In the semifinals, Manika will take on Elizabeta Samara of Roumania while Ankita will meet Brazilian Caroline Kumahara.

Meanwhile, both Soumyajit Ghosh and G. Sathiyan have entered the under-21 Boys singles quarterfinals. Ghosh beat Nitin Philips 11-8, 13-11, 11-7, 11-5 and Sathiyan accounted for Harmeet Desai 12-10, 4-11, 15-13, 4-11, 11-7, 11-7. In the semifinal, Ghosh will take on Sathiyan. In the under-21 girls’ singles semifinal, it will be Suthirtha Mukherjee versus Manika Batra.

The winner of the men and women’s singles will get $4000 while the runner up will receive $2000. The losing semifinals will at least go with $500 each. As for the under-21 event, the singles winner will get $1500 while the runner-up $750. The losing semi-finalists will have to be satisfied with the prize purse of $375.

Gold for Indian teams at Guatemala

Indian Cadet Boys’Team and the Cadet Girls’ Team had a complete domination at the the Guatemala Junior and Cadet Open in Guatemala City winning the gold medals. The combination of Birdie Boro and Anirban Ghosh representing India ‘A’ won the Cadet Boys’ Team title, with the trio of Sreeja Akuka, Harsha Vardhini Calange Ravichandran and Sagarika Mukherjee joining forces to secure Cadet Girls’ Team gold. Success for both outfits with victory being hard earned by the boys but secured rather more comfortably by the girls.

Occupying the top seeded place in the draw, they accounted for the Ecuador pairing of Eunice Galvez and Natalie Paredes in the semi-finals 3-0 before recording a similar victory against the India ‘B’ Team comprising Aishwarya Pathak and Moumita Das, who ended up with the silver.

However, for India ‘A’ in the Cadet Boys’ Team event life was more testing, particularly in the final where they took on India ‘B’ Team partnership of Arjun Ghosh and Larlin Puia.

Arjun Ghosh beat both Birdie Boro (11-6, 11-7, 11-8) and Anirban Ghosh (13-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9) but that was all India ‘B’ could do. Larlin Puia suffered defeats at the hands of Anirban Ghosh (11-9, 11-5, 11-3) and Birdie Boro (11-6, 6-11, 12-10, 11-8) with the doubles being secured by Anirban Ghosh and Birdie Boro in three straight games (11-5, 11-9, 11-5).

A testing final but en route to the final, Anirban Ghosh and Birdie Boro had experienced few problems; in the latter stages ending the hopes of Argentina in an emphatic manner.

However, for India ‘B’ it was a different story. They experienced few problems in the quarter-finals beating the Peruvian pairing of Juan Liyau and Alexander Rotstan by three matches to nil before finding Cuba most testing opponents in the semi-finals.

The player to cause the problems for the Indians was Livan Martinez. He overcame both Arjun Ghosh (11-8, 9-11, 16-14, 6-11, 11-4) and Lalrin Puia (11-5, 13-15, 6-11, 12-10, 11-4). But Carlos Hernandez could not match the efforts of Livan Martinez.

He was beaten by Lalrin Puia (11-4, 11-3, 11-5) and by Arjun Ghosh (11-9, 11-7, 11-5), with the crucial doubles also going the way of the Indians. Arjun Ghosh and Lalrin Puia recorded a straight games win over Carlos Hernandez and Livan Martinez (11-9, 12-10, 12-10) to secure an all Indian final.

TTFI Press release