By Neha Aggarwal
India vs Chinese Taipei in Junior Boys
Top Indian paddlers, Manav Thakkar and Anirban Ghosh will be carrying the expectations of the host nation as they enter the semi finals of the Junior Boys singles at the Indian Junior and Cadet Open being played in Indore.
Currently unranked in the Junior boys, Anirban Ghosh will face Chinese Taipei’s Tai Ming-Wei in the first semi finals. In the quarter finals earlier, Anirban beat teammate Siddhesh Pandey in a full distance duel (9-11, 11-8, 11-8, 10-12, 10-12, 13-11, 11-7) to reach the final four spot. Tai Ming-Wei was also tested by India’s Jeet Chandra in the quarter finals in a full seven games contest. Tai took the first three sets 5-11, 8-11, 11-13 but Jeet bounced back by winning the next three 11-6, 11-9, 11-9. In the final set, Tai kept his nerves strong as he finished off the game 7-11 thus entering in the semi finals.
In the second semi final clash, Manav Thakkar faces a tough challenge as he will be up against Chinese Taipei’s Lai Chi-Chien. In the team events earlier in the tournament, Lai had defeated Manav by three games to one. The pressure will thus be on Manav to avenge the defeat and progress into the finals.
Earlier in the quarter finals, Lai survived a scare as he narrowly beat host nation’s Ronit Banja by four games to three (11-3, 14-12, 7-11, 5-11, 7-11, 11-7, 9-11). Manav on the other hand a smooth run as he crushed Huang Yan-Cheng in a comfortable four games to one contest (11-8, 11-5, 11-4, 3-11, 11-4).
Chinese Taipei had a clean sweep in the team events earlier in the tournament by clinching all the gold medals, the Indians will thus be looking to prevent the same in the singles events and bring home the gold on the last day of the tournament.
Semi finals will be played at 11am IST.
Manush Shah keeps Indian hopes alive
In the cadet boys’ singles section, Manush Shah is the only Indian to reach the semi finals stage. He beat teammate Jayabrata Bhattacharjee by a three games to one score line to progress into the semi finals. He will now face Huang Hung-Chou of Chinese Taipei in the second semi finals.
The first semi finals will be an all Chinese Taipei affair as Tai Ming-Wei will face Huang Yan-Cheng. Both of them ended hopes of India’s Yashansh Malik and DO Rosario Weseley respectively in the quarter finals stage.
Semi finals will be played at 10.30am IST. Watch the LIVE streaming on ITTF’s Official Youtube channel
Detailed Results:
