by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor
On the second day of action she ended the hopes of India, accounting for Bhavina Patel at the semi-final stage (11-7, 11-9, 11-5), prior to securing the title at the final expense of Sonalben Patel (11-9, 11-6, 11-6).
Success against Sonalben Patel was to be expected, the margin of the victory was somewhat of a surprise; on the opening day of play they had met in the group stage of proceedings. On that occasion Khetam Abuawad had been required to recover from a two games to nil deficit, eventually succeeding by the very narrowest of margins in the deciding fifth game (9-11, 9-11, 11-3, 11-9, 16-14).
“Yesterday, I was nervous and made a number of mistakes. Today, with the help of my coach, I was able to keep calm and avoid making mistakes; this is my fourth gold medal for 2017. I am very happy with my performance.” I am very happy with my performance.” Khetam Abuawad
In the counterpart semi-final, Sonalben Patel accounted for Egypt’s Faiza Mahmoud (12-10, 11-9, 11-7), a player very much in form; the previous day she had caused somewhat of an upset by beating Bhavina Patel, who started proceedings as the second seed, to secure first place in her group (9-11, 12-10, 6-11, 12-10, 12-10).
Success Ketham Abuawad and a fourth success of the year on the international scene; in July she won the Women’s Singles Class 4-5 title in Slovenia, in October in Thailand and last week in Spain she was crowned Women’s Singles Class 5 champion.
More titles this year for Khetam Abuawad, it was more medals for Turkey’s Ümran Ertis; bronze medallist earlier this year at the 2017 European Para Championships in Lasko, Sweden, she won the Women’s Singles Class 6-10 event.
In a group organised event, the 21 year old from Ankara concluded her itinerary of matches with success against the Indian duo of Baby Ravi (11-2, 11-7, 13-11) and Vaishnavi Sutar (11-4, 11-2, 11-4).
Baby Ravi duly finished in second place with Palestine’s Nour Abdaljalil in third position.
Proceedings in the individual events concluded; the focus now turns to the team competitions; play concludes in Amman on Wednesday 22nd November.
Al-Watani Para Open: Latest results and forthcoming matches