The Hindu : Sport / Table Tennis : Indians make main draw

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 09, 2007
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Sport - Table Tennis

Indians make main draw

Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI: As anticipated, the non-arrival of players from Ghana and Pakistan turned the qualifying rounds for the men's and women's singles draw into a futile exercise on the opening day of the $25,000 Indian Open table tennis championship at the Indira Gandhi Stadium here.

There were more walkovers than matches as all 16 qualifying aspirants eventually entered the 32-man main draw. Even more farcically, six "lucky losers" made it without winning a match.

In the ladies section, with the exception of J. Swarna, the other eight girls progressed to the main draw. Swarna lost to her Tamil Nadu teammate K. Shamini 10-12, 7-11, 11-7, 8-11, 7-11 to finish second in the three-player group.

However, out of the three such second-placed players, only two spots were available for "lucky losers." By virtue of being the only entry from her country, Nepal's Sandhya Shakya was given one of the spots. Following the draw of lots, a fortunate Divya Deshpande pipped Swarna.

In all, seven men and an equal number of women from India made the main draw.

Sharath to play Buddika

Meanwhile, in the men's first round, home favourite A. Sharath Kamal has drawn Sri Lankan qualifier Buddika Walagampala. Soumyadeep Roy takes on Nepal's Ranjit Singh, National champion Subhajit Saha plays Muhammad Zaenuddin and Pathik Mehta meets Sri Lanka's K. S. T. Chalitha. Should the quartet move up as expected, the tougher tests come up later on Friday evening.

Subhajit Saha has an interesting pre-quarterfinal match lined up against his doubles partner Brazil's Thiago Monteiro, the fourth strongest player in the field. "I have not played against him but I am hopeful of doing well. The conditions here are obviously more suited to the Indian players and I think that should also be a factor when I play him," said a confident Saha after practising with Monteiro.

Among the ladies, Mouma Das faces a dangerous floater in Vishakha Bijoy in the first round while Kasturi Chakraborty will meet Nandita Saha. In contrast, Poulomi Ghatak has an easy opener against Pooja Sahasrabudhe.

The qualifiers (Indians unless stated): Men: A. Amal Raj, Devesh Karia, Sanil Shetty, Anirban Nandi, Jubin Kumar, R. Abhishek, Shahram Sarbakshian (Iran), L. Milinda, K. S. T. Chalitha (both Sri Lanka) and Muhammad Zaenuddin (Indonesia). Lucky Losers: A. Rajath Kamal, Li Kwun Ngai (Hong Kong), B. Walagampala (Sri Lanka), P. Bajracharya, Ranjit Singh (both Nepal) and Setio Utomo Bowo (Indonesia).

Women: Mousumi Paul, K. Shamini, Kasturi Chakraborty, Pooja Sahastrabudhe, Madhurika Patkar and Vishakha Bijoy. Lucky Losers: Divya Deshpande and Sandhya Shakya (Nepal).

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