Chinese Taipei made a clean sweep of team gold medals dominating the show and making light of all Indian squads in the ITTF 2016 India Junior and Cadet Open Table Tennis Championships at the Abhay Prashal here today.
Except for Junior Girls, where they won both the gold and silver medals, India managed to win the other three team silver in Junior Boys, Cadet Boys and Cadet Girls categories.
Fortunately for the hosts, the medal contests were limited to just two teams and it helped India. Like in Junior Girls, where Taiepi denied India the silver, in Cadet Girls, too, they prevented a clean sweep of bronze when their B team finished third along with India A to share space on the podium.
The Taipei players, thus, also sounded a firm warning what to expect in the singles events which get underway from tomorrow with the qualifiers.
Coming back to the team events, the vast difference in quality, skill and game plan were visible in the approaches of the two nationals. Indians, despite having a good mixture from among the top 48 players in both Junior and Cadet sections and struggled as finishers in the singles. But in all doubles events, the Indians fared better. Yet, what made the biggest difference between winning gold or settling for silver was the training given to players at very young age.
Taipei, who had put up two teams in the Cadet Girls, seem to have invested nicely for the future as both managed to finish among medals.
Taipei's superiority in the junior and cadet sections came to the fore even during the group matches yesterday. But when it came to the main draw, they played aggressively and kept the momentum going their way as was evident in the Junior Boys semifinal.
In the first semifinal, Taipei were caught on a wrong foot when Lai Chi-Chien lost to India B's Ananth Devarajan 11-9, 8-11, 11-13, 8-11 but Tai Ming-Wei ensured that parity was restored when he beat Manav Thakkar, who is currently ranked No. 40 in the world, 17-15, 11-8, 12-10 in a see-saw battle-the first game going into six deuces.
Tai was too good to prevail over Manav in the first game and seized the opportunity in the second well to lead 2-0. In the third, the game went neck and neck before Tai won on extended points.
In doubles, both Lai and Tai combined well to beat Ananth and Manav 11-9, 11-8, 11-2 before Lai won his reverse singles against Manav 11-3, 11-9, 5-11, 11-7.
In the other semifinal, India A struggled against India C as the latter went ahead to lead 2-0, thanks to Jeet Chandra and Maush Shah. Jeet defeated Siddesh Pandey 12-10, 6-11, 11-8, 13-11 while Manush accounted for Ronit Bhanja 12-10, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6. But what brought India A back in the game was their crucial doubles which Siddhesh and Ronit won 6-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-7. In reverse singles, Ronit beat Jeet 11-8, 12-10, 11-8 and Siddhesh won the decider against Manush 12-10, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5.
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