India, Singapore enter second stage Commonwealth TT

Hosts India along with other three seeded teams in each group -- Singapore, England and Scotland -- registered easy wins to progress to the second stage of the the 20th Avadh Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships, here today.
The four seeded teams in each group will be joined by four second-placed sides in the second stage matches which starts tomorrow.
The second stage matches, too, will be played in league format with teams divided into two groups with both Singapore and India taking the top perch in groups E and F, respectively.
However, what will interest the Indians or, for that matter, Singapore will be in which group England, another medal contender here, will be drawn into. The second stage draws are scheduled for later tonight.

In women's competition, it was a cakewalk for both India and Singapore but England struggled before overcoming a tough Wales 3-2 to leave the latter to play another set of third round matches to know which of the teams will join the second stage.
In the men's section, Indian men's team tried out two combinations -- Soumyajit Ghosh, Harmeet Desai and Devesh Karia against Jersey and G Sathiyan, Ghosh and Anthony Amalraj against Trinidad and Tobago -- and both were expectedly successful.

So did Singapore bringing in Pang Xue Jie for their match against Sri Lnka, resting their top player Li Hu who opened against New Zealand.

In contrast, the coaches of the Indian women's team kept their faith in the same combination of Mouma Das, Manika Batra and K Shamini as they repeated trhe trio in their matches against Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka.
In the men's competition, Gujarat's Harmeet Desai and Devesh Karia, who made their maiden appearance together for India, played their roles to perfection as they helped second-seeded India beat Jersey 3-0 in the first round match of the team championships.
Soumyajit Ghosh, who was spearheading the campaign, gave a fine start winning his singles against Hugo Tupper in straight games. Then Desai and Karia, who played their singles against 16-year-old Jordan Wykes and Joshua Band, respectively, kept the momentum on India's side and notched up straight games wins.

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Meanwhile, Indian women got a favourable second-stage draw as coaches from Cyprus and Wales chose India as their opponents in Group F while Singapore will have England and Sri Lanka for company in Group E.
At the end of the fist-stage league matches at the Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay Indoor Stadium, the open draw proceedings were conducted this evening.
This meant that the Indian women can top the group and avoid meeting England until the semifinals. Singapore, who face England in the second stage apart from Sri Lanka, will not mind who their opponents are as they are expected to enter the final.

As for men's draw, neither India nor Singapore will have much to worry as they have already taken top positions in Group E and F and await their opponents.
South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago and Northern Ireland will play for positions 7-9.