Lucknow: Chinese women retained the team
title by beating Singapore 3-1 in the final while host India
finished seventh in the Champions division in the 19th Asian
Table Tennis Championships here today.
Thanks to some impressive performance by World number
nine Ding Ning, who beat world number 11 Wang Yue Gu (3-1) and
Feng Tianwei (3-0), Chinese women asserted their Continental
supremacy on the fourth day of the prestigious tournament.
China lost only one match when world number four Li
Xiaoxin went down to Sun Bei Bei 1-3 in the best-of-five
match.
India's men's team finished seventh in the eight-team
Champions Division after overcoming Singapore 3-2 in a keenly
contested affair.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal led the hosts' challenge
in the play-off encounter as the world number 70 first beat
Cai Xiaoli 3-0 and then overcame Zi Yang 3-1 in the return
tie.
Soumyadeep Roy lost to Yang 1-3 in the opening clash and
Anirban Nandy was also handed a defeat by Xaejie Pang with an
identical scoreline.
However, Roy later got the better of Xiaoli 3-2, giving
the home crowd at the Uttar Pradesh Badminton Academy hall
some reason to cheer.
Meanwhile, six Indian women, including reigning national
champion Kumaresan Shamini have reached the second round of
singles event.
Shamini beat Lam Lai Wa of Macao 4-1 while former
national champion Mouma Das and young Divya Deshpande blanked
Nepalese Muna Basukala and Yara Saegh of Jordan respectively,
with an identical 4-0 scoreline.
Pooja Sahasrabudhee beat Amani Khader of Jordan 4-0, and
Mamata Prabhu blanked Rahima Akter 4-0 each while Madhurika
Patkar eliminated Sengdavieng Douangpanya of Laos 4-1.
Poulomi Ghatak was lucky to get a bye to second round.
Among men, Anirban Nandy beat Mustafa Billah (4-0) of
Bangladesh and compatriot Aman Balgu outplayed Sengsathid
Soukathammavong of Laos (4-0).
Sharath were among the five Indians who got byes to the
next round of men's singles.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, November 20, 2009, 00:08