Indians off to good start in singles event

New Delhi: Indians got off to a good start with all the big names clearing the first round hurdle in the singles event at the 19th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships here on Thursday.

In the men`s singles, Jubin Kumar, Achantha Sharath Kamal, Soumyajit Ghosh and Anthony Amalraj won their respective opening round matches, while Mouma Das, K Shamini, Madhurika and Neha Aggarwal have advanced to the second round in the women`s singles category. Jubin inflicted an upset defeat over Liang Ma of Singapore 4-3. Started off brilliantly against a much higher ranked opponent, Jubin grabbed the first game comfortably 11-7. Going onto the sixth with a 3-2 lead, Jubin displayed great back hand defense to surge ahead 7-4. However, Ma raised his game and forced the Indian to get away from the table and commit mistakes. And Eventually took the game 13-11. In the decider, Ma looked a bit jaded and hit wayward shots to lose the match 6-11, even as the 27-year-old Indian held on to his nerves in the final moments to pull off a great victory. Earlier, teenager Sourav Saha gave a scare to Singapore`s Feng Chen before going down 3-4. World No. 93, Saha failed to handle the pressure against his superior opponent despite being 3-1 up in his first round match. An experienced Chen made a strong comeback to turn the tide in his favour. Indian pair of Mouma Das and Soumyajit Ghosh entered the semifinals of the mixed doubles event and will take on Singapore`s Zi Yang and Mengyu Yu later in the day. PTI