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Indian
boys assured themselves of a bronze medal after reaching the semifinals
of the Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships, beating Chinese Taipei
3-2 in the quarterfinals at the Thyagraj Stadium here yesterday.
Harmeet Deasi was the architect of India's victory as the home team not only made it to the semis but also booked a berth in the Junior World Championships to be held in Bahrain this December. |
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This will be the second time in a row that the boys are entering the world meet.
On the second day of the event, India needed to play four matches - three in the league phase and one quarterfinal game - and the hosts tasted cent per cent success. Harmeet played one of the best matches of his life to win the reverse singles after losing his first singles earlier in the day. Down 4-8 in the deciding game, the Indian paddler took seven straight points to seal the match and help India book a place in the semfinals. Soumyajit Ghosh gave the hosts a winning start but Desai could not win his singles as the rivals drew parity. However, G Sathiyan restored the lead for India winning the third first singles. In the reverse singles, Ghosh lost to Chia-Shang Lee 1-3 but Harmeet beat Tzu-Hsiang Hung 14-16, 11-6, 11-7, 11-8 in a hard-fought battle to help India win. While the boys celebrated, the junior girls could not keep up the pace and went down to China 0-3 in the quarterfinals. The junior eves began well in the morning but could not sustain the pace needed in the quarterfinals against the title-holders. They will now play in the 5-8 position playoffs to grab the last berth to Bahrain. The Indian cadet boys too were in a similar position and will appear in the 5-8 position playoffs. It was curtains for the cadet girls. |