Things just seem to be getting better and better for Subhajit Saha. The recently-crowned national table tennis champion, helped India win the men’s team title at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne on Monday with a superb come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Singapore.
Interestingly it was the same trio of Sarath Kamal, Soumyadeep Roy and Saha that helped India to the gold in the Commonwealth Championship a couple of years back. Melbourne 2006, was always going to be a difficult proposition since all the top players were in action. But India with its superb showing throughout got the better of every hurdle.
It was a brilliant team effort, as the threesome won a match each in both the semi-final and final.
“It was as good as it gets. When Roy lost the first match against Nigeria’s formidable Toriola Segun in the semifinal, I still believed we were in with a chance. I won and so did Saha and then Roy pulled it off in the decider. Likewise, in the final against Singapore today, even though both I and Roy lost the first two matches, we had a good chance since Saha was favourite to win his match and then I had to beat the No. 1, which I did. Roy too won his match,” Kamal told the India Express from Melbourne.
As for Saha, he said the key was self-belief. “The moment we beat Nigeria in the semis, we knew we had a good chance of winning the gold. I managed to keep my nerve in the crucial third singles in the final which we had to win to stay alive and the rest fell in place,” he said.
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