World Junior TT: History-making Archana exits in quarters

Archana Girish Kamath’s historic run at the ITTF World Junior Circuit Finals came to an end when top-seed Romanian Adina Diaconu beat the Indian 4-0 in the quarter-finals at the Abhay Prashal Sports Club here today.

Published : Jan 23, 2016 23:53 IST , Chennai

Archana Kamat became the first Indian to enter the last-eight stage after she beat French girl Pauline Chasselin in the third round.
Archana Kamat became the first Indian to enter the last-eight stage after she beat French girl Pauline Chasselin in the third round.
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Archana Kamat became the first Indian to enter the last-eight stage after she beat French girl Pauline Chasselin in the third round.

Archana Girish Kamath’s historic run at the ITTF World Junior Circuit Finals came to an end when top-seed Romanian Adina Diaconu beat the Indian 4-0 in the quarter-finals at the Abhay Prashal Sports Club here today.

Archana became the first Indian to enter the last-eight stage after she beat French girl Pauline Chasselin in the third round. 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 have become 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 semi-final 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 the Romanian. “She was too good and I was completely lost,” admitted Indian after the loss.

The two Indian boys, Mudit Dani and Siddhesh Pandey finished thirteenth (those in 13-16 brackets are considered 13th), but national champion Siddhesh had a far better 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 better exposure 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.

Results

Junior Boys

Quarter-finals: 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).

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).

Junior Girls

Quarter-finals: 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).

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).

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