Panaji: Indian paddlers Harmeet Desai and Sanil Shetty made it to the second round of the qualifiers of the World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender Goa in contrasting fashion here on Monday. Harmeet, ranked 141 in the world, staved off a tough challenge from Englishman Tom Jarvis, ranked above him at 121, in round one of the qualifiers, while Shetty (210) won his round match quite comfortably against countryman Yashansh Malik.
Harmeet lost the first game, but continued to be in the ascendency after that and despite a fight back by Tom, the Indian was able to close out in a tight finish. He won the best of five match 3-2, with the scores reading 9-11 12-10 12-10 11-13 and 12-10 in his favour. Shetty breezed through his match, defeating Yashansh 3-0 (11-3 11-3 11-8) in no time. Harmeet said, "Quite happy that I could win this match because I have played him three times. All previous times it went to the deciders and I lost 9-11 two times and this is the third time and even that was pretty close.
"But I am happy that I could come out as the winner this time. I hope I can continue my form in the upcoming matches." In the mixed doubles, four teams moved into the main draw after winning both their qualifying rounds. Two of them were Korean pairs. Snehit Suravajulla and Diya Chitale of India lost to the German pair of Patrick Franziska and Shan Xiaona 1-3 (5-11 5-11 13-11 8-11), who then beat England's Samuel Walker and Ho Tin-Tin 3-1 (11-6 8-11 11-9 11-7), to move into the round of 16.
Also moving into the main draw was the Japanese pair of Mizuki Oikawa and Miyu Nagasaki who defeated India's Ronit Bhanja and Sutirtha Mukherjee 3-0 (11-8 11-8 11-8) in round two of qualifying. They had caused one of the major upsets of the day earlier, taking out the French pair of Felix Lebrun and Prithika Pavade 3-2 in round one. The French were the top seeds in mixed doubles in the qualifiers. The third mixed doubles pair to go through were Cho Daeseong and Nayeong Kim of Korea, who beat Manush Shah and Sreeja Akula of India 3-2 (3-11 7-11 11-5 11-5 11-9) in round two.
Earlier, Manush and Sreeja had won their round one match against compatriots Vidit Desai and Prithoki Chakraborti 3-0 (11-1 11-2 11-5). Koreans Ganghyeon Park and Hyobin Yoon became the fourth and final team to make the mixed doubles main draw. They beat India's Yashaswini Ghorpade and Payas Jain 3-1 (11-9 11-9 5-11 11-5) in round two. While the Koreans had won over the Romanian pair of Cristian Pletea and Adina Diaconu in round one, Yashaswini and Payas beat compatriots Jeet Chandra and Swastika Ghosh at the same stage.
The first session of the qualifiers also saw some great fights by a couple of young Indian paddlers. The first was by Ronit Bhanja, who went down to 35-year-old towering Czech journeyman Lubomir Jancarik, ranked 114 in the world, 2-3 (11-5 9-11 7-11 11-2 10-12). The second was by Anirban Ghosh, who lost to another seasoned campaigner, Romain Ruiz of France. Romain beat a gallant Anirban 3-2 (11-8 11-7 7-11 8-11 11-8) in round one of the qualifiers.
A total of 200 players from 30 countries, including at lease five top-20 players in both the men's and women's singles main draws, are participating in the tournament. In the men's doubles Manush Shah and Snehit Suravajulla made it through to the round of 16 along with lucky losers Jeet Chandra and Ronit Bhanja. Four mixed doubles pairs had already made the main draw in the morning session of day one of the two-day qualifiers.
Among Indians who won their round one men's and women's singles qualifiers were Harmeet, Shetty, Manav Thakkar, Shubh Goel, Akash Pal, Prithoki Chakraborti, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Swastika Ghosh. In the women's doubles qualifiers, the biggest upset was caused by Koreans Nayeong Kim and Cheonhul Joo, when they took out qualifier top seeds Suthasini Sawettabut and Orawan Paranang 3-1 in a round two match.
They beat the Thai pair 7-11 11-6 11-7 11-4 to move to the round of 16. In other round two women's doubles qualifying matches, third seeded Indians Suhana Saini and Yashaswini Ghorpade were up against the experienced Korean pair of Kim Hayeong and Lee Eunhye. In a hard-fought clash, the Indians gave a good account of themselves and prevailed 3-2 (9-11 15-13 11-7 9-11 11-5) to move to the main draw. They will be joined there by a second Indian qualifying pair of Poymantee Baisya and Anannya Basak.
The duo got a walkover against the Portuguese pair of Jeini Shao and Fu Yu. In round one, they had overcome another Indian pairing of Reeth Tennison and Swastika Ghosh. Also moving into the main draw were fourth seeds from Honk Kong, Li Ching Wan and Zhu Chengzhu, who easily overcame India's Prachi Mazumder and Avisha Karmakar 3-0 (11-9 11-6 11-7) in their round two qualifier. In the men's doubles, Cedric Nuytinck and Adrien Rassenfosse of Belgium took the final qualifying spot of the evening. They beat Koreans Ganghyeon Park and Dongsoo Kang 3-2 (11-7 4-11 9-11 11-8 11-8) in the final match of the day.
Manush Shah and Snehit Suravajulla defeated fellow Indians Jeet Chandra and Ronit Bhanja 3-0 (11-5 11-5 11-6) in round two to move to the main draw. However, Payas Jain and Shetty went down at the same stage to the French pairing of Bastien Rembert and Jules Rolland in straight games. The fourth men's qualifying spot was taken by England's Tom Jarvis and Samuel Walker, who put it across the home side's Jashan Antal and Arush Dutt 3-0 (11-6 11-5 11-7). Two other losing pairs also made it to the men's doubles round of 16 on the basis of having higher doubles rankings than the other losing pairs. They were India's Jeet Chandra and Ronit Bhanja and Korea's Ganghyeon Park and Dongsoo Kang. (PTI)
