India entered the final of the 22nd Asian Junior and Cadet Table Tennis Championships at Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday, beating South Korea 3-2 to ensure a silver medal for the team and also directly qualify for the World Junior Championships, to be held at Korat (Thailand) in November this year.
China, who blanked out Taipei 3-0 and will take on India in the final on Sunday. Top three teams at the continental event in Ulaanbaatar qualify for the Worlds but with no third-place playoff, the third team’s fate will be decided on the individual players’ performance from Taipei and Korea – the bronze medallists – and other teams, including Japan.
In the individual events, which begin from Thursday, Japan stand a good chance to qualify as the third squad for the Worlds.
This was the second consecutive final for India, who are seeded No 2 behind China, and it was achieved when Anukram Jain, playing the third singles in the semi-finals, did what Harmeet Desai had done in the World Championships to put India in the Championships Division as India men won gold.
Though Manush Shah, India’s No 1 junior player and ranked number 7 in the world, gave a winning start defeating Park Gyuhyeon 5-11, 11-6, 15-13, 11-1 in a tough opener, the second-best Raegan Albuquerque lost the second singles tamely to Korea’s Kim Woojin 6-11, 5-11, 10-12.
It was then Jain payed the gamechanger against Lee Gihun. It was a very dicey first game for Jain as after squandering two game points, he won it 14-12. This gave the lanky Rajasthan player a distinct advantage in the second as he managed to pull it off to go 2-0 up. However, the Korean came back nicely in the third to pull one back and the Indian, without wasting time, attacked in the next using both flanks to score a crucial 14-12, 11-9, 7-11, 11-3 triumph.
Yet, Manush Shah could not do much against the Korea’s number 1 player in the fourth game as Kim decimated the left-hander 11-6, 11-5, 12-10 to level the score and give his team a fair chance. But Raegan had other ideas as he opened with authority against Park and hastened Korea’s exit, despite losing the second game, with 11-7, 7-11, 11-8, 11-6 score.
Jain had to perform a similar role in the morning as well in the quarter-finals when India beat Thailand 3-1. After Raegan had provided the lead against Yanapong Panagitgun (3-2), Shah lost his singles to Wattanachal in straight games before Jain brought India back on track, beating Thyme Sanglertsilpachai (3-1).
Then Shah defeated Yanapong 3-0 to seal a semi-final berth for India. Earlier, the junior girls bowed out in the quarter-finals losing 0-3 to Japan, while in the Cadet section, both our boys and girls teams failed to enter the main draw.