Indore: Archana Girish Kamath’s epoch-making run at the 11Even Sports 2015 ITTF World Junior Circuit Finals came to an end when top-seed Romanian Adina Diaconu beat the Indian 4-0 in the quarterfinals at the Abhay Prashal here today.
Archana, who became the first Indian to enter the last-eight stages, could not repeat her feat against French girl Pauline Chasselin in the third round which paved the way for her quarterfinal entry. Yet, the Bengaluru girl, who finished fifth, can look up to going a few places higher in her rankings. In addition, the 16-year-old will pocket $1,050 for her efforts.
Archana was completely out of sorts against the attacking Romanian whose backhand winners became the talk of the town. That Adina was not only fast but even furious with her approach against the 14th seeded Indian was evident right from the word go. She ran into a 9-2 in the first game, sounding the alarm bell for Archana.
The pattern continued despite Archana trying to slow down the game as none of her tricks, including backhand topspin services, worked. Interestingly, Adina was in a hurry to finish the match and she made no bones about it. She will take on Park Seri of Korea in the first semifinal tomorrow.
However hard the Indian tried, the 10th standard student from Sadashivanagar’s Poorna Pranja Education Centre in Bengaluru could not counter the pace of Romanian.
“She was too good and I was completely lost,” admitted Indian after the loss. But in the morning, it was a different Archana against Pauline. She was not only attacking but her strategy of feeding her French opponent with long balls helped. Though the French tried to come back when she made it 3-2 in the fifth set, Archana was focused on the job at hand to end Pauline’s ordeal.
“My coach advised me to keep her away from the table and I just followed Sandeep Sir’s instructions. His assessment was precise and he kept telling me to keep Pauling away from the table,” said Archana, praising Sandeep Gupta.
Siddhesh justifies
The two Indian boys, Mudit Dani and Siddhesh Pandey finished thirteen—those in 13-16 brackets are considered 13th—but national champion Siddhesh had a far better junior finals outing than Mudit. Siddhesh, who was a last-minute entrant owing to the pullout by Qatari Abdulrahman Al-Naggar, not only justified his inclusion but even performed beyond expectations. He should have won a couple of close encounters but lacked maturity at crucial junctures.
Mudit, on the other hand, has had wider exposures outside the country and gained entry because of his better world rankings. Yet when it came to performing in the finals here, Mudit fell short of expectations as he failed to take a single game off his opponents in all the matches.
Siddhesh led 2-0 in the consolation match against Germany’s Johah Schile but let his rival off the hook as the German struck a nice rhythm to take the next four games to push Siddhesh to the corner.
Match of tournament
In men’s first quarterfinal, Zhag Kai of the USA surpassed all expectations to beat Taipei’s Chun-Yu Tsai 4-3 in a gripping encounter to earn a semifinal meeting with Japanese Izumo Takuto who sdnt second-seeded Darko Jorgic packing.
In what turned out to be the best match of the tournament so far, the Japanese had everything going for himself as he should have won 4-1, then 4-2 when he led 5-0 and 5-1 in the respective games. But his cardinal blunder was the long ball which kept the Slovenian in the match as he kept returning when he was pushed away from the table. But the 16-year-old Japanese got his focus back in the decider and won with a minimal point to go through.
The boys’ semifinals line-up will be Zhang Kai vs Izumo Takuto and An Jaehyun vs Carlos Vedriel while in the girls it will be Adina Diaconu vs Pari Seri and Andreea Dragoman vs Zhu Chengzhu.
Results:
Junior Boys:
Quarterfinals: Zhang Kai (USA) bt Chun-Yu Tsai (TPE) 4-3 (7-11, 11-9, 9-11, 5-11, 11-4, 11-4, 12-10), Izumo Takuto (JPN) bt Darko Jorgic (SLO) 4-3 (11-8, 10-12, 11-9, 11-8, 10-12, 9-11, 11-9), An Jaehyun (KOR) bt Tomokazu Harimoti (JPN) 4-3 (5-11, 11-8, 11-8, 4-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-5), Carlos Vedriel (ESP) bt Abdel-Aziz Youssef (EGY) 4-1 (11-4, 11-7, 9-11, 11-4, 11-3).
Consolation: Cristian Ple tea (ROU) bt Mudit Dani (IND) 4-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-5, 11-9), Ali Alkhadrawi (RSA) bt Helshan Weerasinghe (ENG) 4-3 (9-11, 5-11, 11-3, 3-11, 11-5, 12-10, 11-6), Jonah Schile (GER) bt Siddhesh Pande (IND) 4-2 (7-11, 2-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-7, 11-9), Issac Zauli (BRA) bt Mohammad Abdulwahhab (QAT) 4-2 (12-10, 21-19, 7-11, 5-11, 11-6, 11-5).
Position 9-16: 9-Pleta Cristian (ROU), 10-Jonah Schlie (GER), Joint 11: Ali Alkhadrawi (KSA), Issac Zauli (BRA), Joint 13-Helshan Weerasinghe (ENG), Mudit Dani (IND), Mohammad Abdulwahhab (QAT), Siddhesh Pande (IND)
Junior Girls:
Quarterfinals: Adina Diaconu (ROU) bt Archana Girish Kamath (IND) 4-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-4, 11-6), Park Seri (KOR) bt Lin Chia-Hsuan (TPE) 4-0 (14-12, 13-11, 13-11, 14-12), Andreea Dragoman (ROU) bt Zhang Xuan (ESP) 4-3 (11-5, 11-13, 4-11, 15-13, 11-5, 6-11, 11-5), Zhu Chengzhu (HKG) bt Miyu Kihara (JPN) 4-2 (8-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9).
Consolation: Angela Guan (USA) bt Wu Jiamuwa (AUS) 4-3 (13-11, 7-11, 5-11, 11-4, 11-7, 9-11, 11-4), Tamolwan Khetkhuan (THA) bt Amira Yousry (EGY) 4-0 (11-2, 11-8, 11-4, 12-10), Lin Po-Hsuan (TPE) bt Leticia Nakada (BRA) 4-2 (12-10, 10-12, 11-8, 2-11, 16-14, 11-5), Pauline Chasselin (FRA) bt Bruna Takahashi (BRA) 4-2 (11-6, 8-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-8, 11-9).
Position 9-16: 9-Pauline Chasselin (FRA), 10-Angela Guan (USA), Joint 11-Tamolwan Khetkhuan (THA) and Lin Po-Hsuan (TPE), Joint 13-Amira Yousry (EGY), Bruna Takahasi (BRA), Leticia (BRA) and Wu Jiamuwa (AUS).
