by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

At the final hurdle, Snehit Suravajjula, the no.15 seed, accounted for colleague Jeet Chandra, the no.3 seed, to arrest the title (12-10, 7-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-6), having earlier caused a major second round upset by overcoming Egypt’s Youssef Abdel-Aziz, the no.2 seed (13-15, 13-15, 11-9, 11-8, 11-4, 11-4).

Success against Youssef Abdel-Aziz was followed by a quarter-final win in opposition to Chinese Taipei’s Wang Yi-Fan (11-4, 11-8, 11-5, 3-11, 9-11, 11-4) and a penultimate round victory over Hsu Po-Hsuan, also from Chinese Taipei (11-7, 9-11, 4-11, 11-4, 12-10, 14-12). Both were wins as expected; neither Wang Yi-Fan nor Hsu Po-Hsuan occupied a seeded position.

Meanwhile, in the opposite half of the draw, in the latter stages, Jeet Chandra accounted for Iran’s Hamid Shams (11-9, 11-8, 11-7, 11-7) and Qatar’s Mohammed Abdulwahhab, the no.4 seed and winner in 2015 (11-7, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-8), prior to reserving his place in the final by beating the man in form.

He overcame colleague, Parth Virmani, the no.9 seed (9-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-7); the player who earlier in the day in the second round had beaten Thailand’s Yanapong Panagitgun, the top seed (8-11, 11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 14-12, 11-8).

Gold for Snehit Suravajjula in the Junior Boys’ Singles event; in the Junior Boys’ Doubles competition, again an all Indian final being the order of the day, it was silver in harness with Anukram Jain. They experienced defeat in the title deciding contest at the hands of Manush Utpalbhai Shah and Parth Virmani by the very narrowest of five game margins (11-7, 11-13, 8-11, 11-6, 11-9).

Earlier in the day at the semi-final stage, both Indian pairs had ended the hopes of Chinese Taipei. Anukram Jain and Snehit Suravajjula had beaten Hsu Po-Hsuan and Peng-Chih (3-11, 11-9, 11-7, 7-11, 11-9); Manush Utpalbhai Shah and Parth Virmani overcomeLi Hsin-Yu and Wang Yi-Fan (6-11, 12-10, 11-2, 11-3).

Photos: courtesy of Jordan Table Tennis Federation