Indians show guts but no killer instinct

After four Indians junior boys made the knockout stage of the 17th Junior Asian Table Tennis Championships,they could have expected a bit of luck at the draw to select their quarter-final opponents. Unfortunately,all but Soumyajit Ghosh,who was drawn to take on South Korean Jae Jun Cho,had to face the formidable Chinese. What followed was on expected lines as Harmeet Desai,G Sathiyan and Saurav Saha all suffered defeats. What should enable them to hold their head up high,however,is the manner in which they pushed their opponents to the brink.

At the same time,what will hurt is the fact that all three lost the matches that they could have won. G. Sathiyan went down 3-4 against Gaoyuan Lin,the top seed and the junior World number 2,5-11 11-7 13-11 7-11 6-11 11-9 6-11. Harmeet Desai also lost to Wu Jiaji 2-4 (7-11 11-9 71-11 12-10 7-11 8-11) after a gruelling fight which made the Chinese sweat for every single point.

But the biggest heartbreak came for Sourav Saha who,having led 3 games to 0 against Yin Hang,let the Chinese come back to level 3-3.

Story continues below this ad

Saha then took a commanding 7-0 lead in the decider,before allowing Yin to win in a most bizarre manner. Showing steely resolve,the Chinese started attacking and Saha crumbled. While the Chinese managed seven straight points,Saha managed just three more. Where the Indians lost — and the Chinese won — was their lack of mental toughness in finishing off close games.

In the girls section,Manika Batra was the lone Indian to make the pre-quarter finals but then lost to her Japanese rival So Eka 11-4 7-11 11-9 9-11 5-11 4-11. Abhishek Yadav,however,gave the hosts something to cheer about with his entry into the semi-final of the cadet section after beating Lim Jonghoon of Korea 9-11 11-7 8-11 9-11 11-5 11-7 11-9.