Surat : Indian men were guaranteed three singles medals leaving the fourth one to Singapore in the Avadh 20th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships at the Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay Indoor Stadium. The Indians also looked like overhauling their best ever tally of nine medals. The hosts have already assured themselves of medals in doubles in both the sections, apart from the team gold and silver. Soumyajit Ghosh rolled over his Scottish rival Gavin Rumgay 11-4, 11-8, 11-6, 12-10, but G Sathiyan fell to world number 176 Chen Feng of Singapore 11-13, 11-9, 7-11, 10-12, 11-4, 5-11. Saithiyan has to blame himself for squandering the fourth game after a sizeable 10-7 lead which allowed Chen to come back strongly and reach the semifinals. If only he had won, it would have given him a comfortable 3-1 lead and confidence to go over the hurdle. Yet the Indian presence in the semifinal became evident as in the all-India quarterfinals, Anthony Amalraj taught a lesson or two to Abhishek Yadav, winning the match 11-4, 11-4, 11-4, 11-2 in flat 22 minutes.
Abhishek, ranked way below his rival (212), could not counter the speedy Amalraj despite possessing good strokes and went down without a murmur. In contrast, left-handed Sanil Shetty (267) overcame local boy and higher-ranked (155) Harmeet Desai 9-11, 4-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-5. In the pre-quarterfinals, Harmeet defeated England’s Helshan Weerasinghe 11-13, 11-8, 11-7, 8-11, 6-11, 11-6, 16-14. The Indian saved two match-points and, on his second, won the crucial decider when Helshan sent the ball out after a couple of rallies. With two Singaporeans in the women’s quarterfinals, it was always going to be difficult for the hosts’ paddlers and that’s precisely what happened with Ankita Das and K Shamini. Nevertheless, both Mouma Das and Manika Batra assured themselves of at least a bronze medal each. The biggest problem, however, will be their rivals in the semifinals, the top two seeds of the championships. Number two Indian Mouma had a tough time against Pooja who took her compatriot the full distance. It looked as if Mouma will sail through, but Pooja had the audacity to challenge the national champion by levelling the score. In the decider, Pooja fought well to level 8-all but the attacking Mouma turned the heat on her rival to seal the fate with a 11-6, 8-11, 11-7, 12-10m 8-11, 10-12, 11-8 verdict.
