CHENNAI, SEPT 1: Korea's hopes of a double had a rude jolt when Chinese Taipei scored a shock 3-2 win over them in the semifinals of the girls team events of the Indian Oil Servo Asian junior table tennis championship. Chinese girls sleepwalked past Indian girls 3-0 in the other semifinals.At the Nehru Indoor Stadium on Wednesday, Korea put out a fighting 3-2 win over Japan and China shut out India 3-0 in the boys semifinals.The morning belonged to Indian boys. In one of the most spirited show in recent times, they exceeded all expectations to make it to the semifinals.In other morning quarterfinals, China just lost a game in the 3-0 whiplash of India B, Korea sleepwalked past UAE and Japan eased past Yemen 3-0.Indian coach Kamlesh Mehta had fancied the chances when the draw pitted them against Chinese Taipei on Tuesday. In a win which is sure to India's morale a lot good, Subhajit Saha authored the win taking the first and fourth matches. Soumaydeep Roy delivered the final punch putting a lot ofthought in carrying Kamlesh's instructions to the letter.Subhajit had that distinct edge over Lion Ching Hung in the opening match to put his team in front. Soumyadeep just could not find his bearings against Wen Chih Hsuan and India backpedalled further when an hustle and bustle Ranbir Das was put in his place by the free stroking Pan Chun Hung.The tide turned when Subhajit took on Wen Chih Hsuan. Losing a close first game, Subhajit opened out keeping the jabs short and going full throttle with his top spin drives. Wen had a task to check the flow of Subajit's drives and could not quite get the full arc of his bat in trying the counters. Down 15-19, Wen closed in on to 19 all but Subhajit held his nerve to take it to the decider.Some pleasing rallies punctuated with sharp jabs meant it all boiled down to the nerves in the end. Subhajit's slender lead was negated at the half-way stage as each looked for the little extra inch to break free. Wen saved one match point before burying the second into thenet.Soumyadeep started in a flourish against Hung only to lose ground in the midway stage. At 11-14 he had some catching to do but once there his confidence shoot up. The only factor common was that both played close to the table. But Soumyadeep was more positive and had more variations. The spot on backhand drives had that sureness enveloped over it. He mixed it up well with his top spin drives, a little tentative but purposeful.
