Busan: India’s national champion K. Shamini, veteran Mouma Das and Ankita Das all moved into the third round of the women’s singles from their respective quarters, while Neha Aggarwal and Madhurika Patkar made their exit at at the Asian Championships here this evening.
On a day which saw three women paddlers making progress, two were standout performances and the most talked about being the one between Mouma Das and Singapore’s Singapore’s Isabelle Siun Li whom the Indian beat 4-3 in 75 minutes, the longest so far in the championships.
Mouma eventually overcame the Singaporean in a contest that went the full distance with the minimal two-point margin sealing the issue in seventh game. Mouma won 11-6, 11-5, 13-11, 7-11, 17-19, 9-11, 11-9. Mouma will take on Japanese Ishikawa Kasumi in the next round.
In a long hard-fought duel Mouma had to strain every bone of her to penetrate the defensive artistry of Isabelle. Mouma, who took the first three games rather easily, was made to work for her points as she made mistakes on her backhand. “She changed her game plan and I was lured into it,” she admitted. “I played a forehand top spin and then followed it up with a push. Coach Bhawani (Mukherjee) Sir asked to attack and it paid dividends,” added Mouma.
For Akita Das, it was equally a tough ask against Vienamese Mai Hoang My Trang who stretched the Indian almost the full distance before Indian clinching the match 4-2 (6-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-6, 8-11, 11-9) in her favour. Ankita said her rhythm was going well today and that reflected in her attacking game. “I often had to mix it up, but I was sure I could bet my opponent,” said Ankita. The Siliguri girl next runs into Korean Mang Haeun.
As for Shamini, she had the best of outings as she complted her second-round demolition of Iranian Omrani Mahjobeh in less than half an hour for a 4-0 (11-8, 11-5, 11-6, 11-6) victory. ). Shamini will play Chinese Ding Ning in the next round.
But Neha Aggarwal lost her first-round match to Korean Cho Hala 1-4 (8-11, 9-11, 11-9, 4-11, 4-11) while Madhurika Patkar made her exit in the secound round losing to Chinese Liu Shiwen 5-11, 9-11, 3-11, 4-11. Earlier she had beaten Taipei’s Huang Hsin 4-2 (11-4, 9-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-6).
In men’s doubles the pair of Soumyajit Ghosh and Harmeet Desai lost to Ma Long and Xu Xin 2-3 in the second round, while the other Indian duo of Sharath Kamal and Sanil Shetty entered the third round after they got a walkover from the Iranian pair of Teharkhani Hamidreza and Mohammad Akhlaghpasand. They will meet Hong Kong’s Cheung Yuk and Leung Chu Yan in the next round.
As for the men’s singles fare, Sharath Kamal, Anthony Amalraj, Soumyajit Ghosh, Sanil Shetty and Harmeet Desai all are slated to play their matches later tonight.
