Mumbai, Oct 17: Third seeds China won the junior girls title with an upset win over India A, while top seeds India A won the junior boys crown, in the USD 8,000 Reliance India Junior and Cadet
Open Table Tennis Championship, played at the NSCI-Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium here today.
China rallied from the loss of the opening singles tie where Li Anqi lost to world No 30 Manika Batra, to snatch an exciting 3-1 win over the favourites, in the process beating the hosts for the second time in two days.
Yanmei Yang won the second singles over world No 60 Suthirtha Mukherjee before pairing with Anqi to win the doubles for a 2-1 lead.
Delhi lass Batra frittered away an envious 2-0 advantage against Yanmei in the crucial fourth singles tie when she lost her way midway via a slew of errors through a riveting contest. Yanmei endured the early setback following a flurry of winners by Batra on both flanks and recovered brilliantly to force the decider and snatch a surprise win for China.
‘I needlessly put myself under pressure,’ reasoned a visibly disappointed Batra. ‘After enjoying the 2-0 lead, I was eager to finish off the match. Much to my discomfort, Yang slowed down the game and looked surprisingly calm even while trailing. Also, we should have won the doubles. But overall I am happy with my game. Beating Anqi in the opening singles was a good result for me,’ he added.
Led by India junior No 1, Abhishek Yadav and No 2 Sudhanshu Grover, India A lived up to their reputation to win the Junior boys title with a 3-0 win over surprise finalists India E that had Sanish Amberkar and Chinmay Datar.
Meanwhile, favourites India A teams won the Cadet boys and girls titles. (UNI)
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