Asian TT: Indian challenge comes to an end

The Indian pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sourav Chakraborty had to face a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Jiang Tianyi and Tang Peng of Hong Kong in the third round. Despite an 11-7 win in the first game,the Indian duo could not stop the opponents from coming back into the match as the Hong Kong players triumphed in the next three games by 11-5,11-6,11-6. The strong Chinese pair of Wang Liqin and Zang Jike had little difficulty in blanking out Soumyadeep Roy and Jubin Kumar 11-6,11-3,11-6 to storm into the pre-quarters in style.

In the women’s doubles event,India’s Mouma Das and Poulomi Ghatak also made an exit with a defeat in the third round. They failed to provide any meaningful resistance to Jiang Huajun and Tie Ya Na of Hong Kong who won 3-1 (11-7,11-9,7-11,11-3).

The mixed doubles final was won by Ma Long and Li Xiaoxia of China who beat Zhang Jike and Ding Ning,also from China,by 11-7,11-9,6-11,11-8,7-11,11-8.

In the men’s singles quarter-finals,Ma Long of China,ranked world no.2,registered a thumping 4-0 win against Japan’s Matsudaira Kenta. China’s Xu Xin,Zhang Jike and world number 5,Wang Liqin also emerged winners in their respective last eight stage clashes.

In the women’s singles quarters,the match between Chinese players Fan Ying and Wu Yang proved to be one of the best matches of the day as both the players exhibited good aggression in their game. Eventually,Fan Ying won the match by 11-3,7-11,11-8,9-11,10-12,12-10,11-6.

The Results:
Men’s Singles:- (Quarter-finals): Ma Long (China) bt Matsudaira Kenta (Jpn) 4-0,Xu Xin (Chn) bt Mizutani Jun (Jpn) 4-1; Zhang Jike (Chn) bt Cheung Yuk (Hkg) 4-1; Wang Liqin (Chn) bt Jang Song Man (Prk) 4-1;

Women’s singles:- (Quarter-finals): Li Xiaoxia (Chn) bt Jiang Huajun (Hkg) 4-0; Fan Ying (Chn) by Wu Yang (Chn) 4-3; Ding Ning (Chn) by Kim Kyung Ah (Kor) 4-3; Liu Shiwen (Chn) bt Wang Ye Gu (Sin) 4-1;

Women’s Doubles:-
(Semi-finals): Ding Ning/ Li Xiaoxia (Chn) bt Dang Ye Seo (Kor) 4-0; Kim Kyung Ah/ Park Mi Young (Kor) bt Feng Tianwei/ Wang Ye Gu (Sin) 4-3;

Men’s Doubles:- (Semi-finals): Wang Liqin/ Zhang Jike (Chins) bt Li Ching/ Cheung Yuk (Hkg) 4-0; Ma Long/ Xu Xin (Chn) bt Matsudaira Kenta/ Niwa Koki (Jpn) 4-0.

Mixed Doubles:-Finals: Ma Long/ Li Xiaoxia (Chn) bt Zhang Jike/ Ding Ning (Chn) 4-2 (11-7,11-9,6-11,11-8,7-11,11-9); Semi-finals: Ma Long/ Li Xiaoxia (Chn) bt Xu Xin/ Liu Shiwen (Chn) 4-2; Zhang Jike/ Ding Ning (Chn) bt Kishikawa Seiya/ Fukuhara Ai (Jpn) 4-2.

Sharath adjudged meet’s most valuable player
Sharath Kamal of India and Kim Jong from DPR Korea have been honoured with ‘Most valuable player of the 19th Asian Table Tennis Championships’ award. As per the TTFI officials,this was for the first time that a cash prize of US$ 1000 was awarded to one player in the men’s and women’s sections,respectively. They were selected for this award by a selection committee headed by Park Do Choen (Korea),chairman technical committee,ATTU. The prizes were sponsored by ‘Stag International India’.