The Hindu : Sport : Indian men breeze into final, to meet Singapore

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 02, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport

Indian men breeze into final, to meet Singapore

K. Keerthivasan

A fighting women's team settles for the bronze medal

FOCUSSED: Soumyadeep Roy during his victory over Davis Kyle of Australia. — Photo: Sandeep Saxena

JAIPUR: India versus Singapore in the men's Commonwealth table tennis championships final to be held at the Sawai Mansingh Indoor Stadium here on Saturday could well be termed by many as an equal contest. For Singapore has in its ranks two top-40 players. Paddlers of very high quality.

But India is determined to turn the tables around as coach Kamlesh Mehta put it "we will go all out and put pressure on them."

Certainly, India has the momentum going its way and especially the way it played its last two league matches of the second stage on Friday.

It can hope for a "miracle". It breezed past Canada and Australia 3-0 to top the group. Australia and Nigeria emerged second in their groups, and settled for joint bronze.

Tough group

Placed in a tough group, Indian women played far above their potential to defeat Nigeria 3-1 but went down fighting 3-0 to Singapore. Finishing second in its group, India settled for a bronze. So did Australia, which finished runner-up in its group.

The Indian men hardly had any problems with Canada. The three top stars — Sharath Kamal, Subhajit Saha and Soumyadeep Roy didn't lose a game. Its final group match with Australia, a relatively tougher opponent, went according to plans with Subhajit Saha, the star of India's campaign so far and of course Sharath winning with élan.

Sharath's much anticipated match against William Henzell turned out to be quite one-sided andnot like the one played between the two in the 2006 final of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Struggling Soumyadeep

For Soumyadeep this has not been the best of championships. He has struggled to close out matches and his form definitely has fluctuated. He failed to close out the match against Australia's Kyle Davis in the third rubber.

Leading by two games, Soumyadeep dragged on before winning in five games. Kamlesh defended Soumyadeep saying, "he is capable of playing better and has the potential of raising his game." Let's hope for India's sake, Soumyadeep does so.

Closely fought

Though the Indian women lost to Singapore 3-0, each match was closely fought. K. Shamini, Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das put up a brave fight. Most importantly, they were not intimidated by their opponents.

In the third rubber, Mouma matched Paey Fern Tan point for point. Down 1-2, Mouma had a game point at 11-10 in the fourth game, but failed to drive home the advantage. In the women's team final, Singapore will clash with Malaysia. Significantly, Singapore will be aiming for a double.

The results (Stage 2): Men: India bt Australia 3-0 (Subhajit Saha bt Kiet Song Tran 11-8, 8-11, 11-3, 11-6; Sharath Kamal bt William Henzell 11-5, 11-8, 11-6; Soumyadeep Roy bt Kyle Davis12-10, 11-5, 8-11, 6-11, 11-7).India bt Canada 3-0 (Subhajit Saha bt Pierre-Luc Hinse 11-6, 11-7, 11-8; Sharath Kamal bt Ling Kun Yang 11-8, 11-5, 11-3; Soumyadeep Roy bt Andre Ho 11-5, 11-6, 11-8).Women: India bt Nigeria 3-1 (Mouma Das lost to Funke Oshonaike 5-11, 9-11, 12-10, 5-11; Poulomi Ghatak bt Bose Kaffo 11-4, 11-4, 5-11, 11-5; K. Shamini bt Cecilia Otu Offiong 3-11, 12-10, 5-11, 11-5, 11-5; Poulomi Ghatak bt Funke Oshonaike 10-12, 11-6, 11-9, 11-7). Singapore bt India 3-0 (Yue Gu Wang bt K. Shamini 9-11, 11-3, 11-7, 11-4; Sun Bei Bei bt Poulomi Ghatak 11-8, 12-10, 6-11, 11-8; Pay Fern Tan bt Mouma Das 11-7, 11-8, 5-11, 14-12).

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport