Indian Table Tennis Thread ...

[david]

I don't know how many went to Sydney Olympics from India but this year the contingent will be more than 50 (including 16 from hockey).

So its a good number and hope an Anjali or an Anju will bring back a couple of medals.

[suresh]

By the way, has Chetan Baboor qualified for the Olympics? He might be ranked
high enough to qualify or is he going to be playing qualifiers in the US?

[david]

Baboor has not yet qualified for the Olympics. There is one more round of qualifier for the quota berths June.

[PKBasu]

While digging around in the Gulf/Qatar newspapers for a story about the Qatar Futures tennis, I was surprised to find the following story (if true, it would be an amazing achievement by the Indian girls; but the absence of Chinese in any of the finals makes me a bit suspicious about whether this is really a world junior championship.

Here's the story from Gulf News (sorry, I had to paste most of the text since there was no link):

Poland and India win team titles

By Alaric Gomes

Staff Reporter

Dubai: Controversy peeped its head even as Poland and India walked away with the junior boys' and girls' team titles at the World Junior Table Tennis Championships, being held at the Al Wasl Club yesterday.

The competition, part of the ITTF's World Junior Circuit, went on till late in the night, thanks to organisers being unable to run matches as per the planned schedule.

But despite the late hour, Poland did well to secure an entertaining 3-1 win against Croatia in the junior boys, while India upset firm favourites and top seeds, Brazil in the girls' team competition.

"It's such a great victory for us," stated Poland coach Andrew Gniewik after his team's victory.

"It really feels very nice to pocket the teams title. We will now be looking at faring better in the singles events as well," the Polish coach promised as he received the felicitations from Poland Ambassador, Miroslaw Adamczyk.

The Indians too were thrilled after their girls eased their way past the top seeds 3-2 in an engrossing final.

"We never expected such a fantastic result," blurted Indian team coach, BS Chawat. "Brazil are the top seeds, while we were seeded fourth in this tournament. Our girls have done a great job for the country," he added.

But Chawat's joy, that came later in the night, could have turned into consternation, had his top player Arunava Ganguly failed to qualify for the second stage of the boys' junior singles.

Ganguly, though headed towards a win against Saudi Arabia's Mansour Aleem after leading 3-2 at that stage, fell at the final hurdle as he went down 3-4.

That happened to be the only best-of-seven sets match played in this competition so far - and all because the referee officiating had failed to record the fact that it was indeed a best-of-five encounter and not a best-of-seven match, which he insisted on playing.

As per competition rules, all preliminary round matches were expected to be best-of-five sets of 11 points each, while the quarterfinals onwards was meant to see action over seven sets.

"It is the discretion of the referee," chief referee Nabeel Al Mamoon told Gulf News.

"And it was the responsibility of either the coach or the players or the referee to bring this lapse to the attention of the committee," he insisted.

But the Indian coach had a varying version to state. "I went and voiced a verbal complaint and the chief referee did not take it seriously. I have now handed in a written complaint and I want to see how they will decide on it.

Who's to blame?

"Why should a player pay for a mistake made by a qualified official? The official has to interpret the rules, while the player has to merely play the game," Chawat stated.

The Indian coach further stated that he will be tabling a report before the Indian Table Tennis Association after getting back home.

"Let the matter be handled at an official level. I will put down my observations for them to decide," Chawat said.

The boys' juniors, meanwhile, was headed to an engrossing finish after Croatia took the upper hand following Tomislav Zubcic's 10-12, 0-11, 11-2, 11-5, 11-3 win against Piotr Chmiel.

But Piotr's twin brother Pawel brought things to level with a 11-5, 12-10, 11-9 win against Tomislav Kolarek.

The doubles was delightful with the Croatians going down 3-2.

In the reverse singles, Pawel sealed things up with a 12-14, 11-5, 11-7, 11-5 win against Zubcic.

Today will see the singles competition for the junior boys, girls and cadets starting at 10am. There were no major upsets in either the boys' or the girls' sections as the seeded players marched on. The tournament is scheduled to end with the finals tomorrow.

Results
Team events (under-18):
Boys' Juniors: Poland bt Croatia 3-1.
Girls' Juniors: India bt Brazil 3-2.

[PKBasu]

I doubt this is THE world junior championship, perhaps one of many...? Bhushan?

[Dhruv]

It is basically a part of the ITTF Junior Circuit similar to the Grade 1 tournaments I guess in tennis with which you may be a little more familiar with.

Here is link http://www.ittf.com/junior_link_main.html

[BSharma]

The Indian men team won the gold medal in the 16th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship at Cheras in Kuala Lumpur by beating England 3-1.

According to rediff sports, "In the preliminary stage, India overcame Northern Ireland and Scotland 3-0, while in the secondary stage it defeated Malaysia and New Zealand 3-0 and Wales 3-1 to enter the final as the group topper.

Wales beat Australia 3-0 to claim the bronze medal in men's team event.

Earlier, a five-member women's team led by Poulami Ghatak effected a 3-0 victory over England to claim the bronze medal in the team event."
Indian men win Commonwealth Table Tennis gold

[kathiresan_v]

Indian men claim Gold & Silver at the individual championship;

MEN’S SINGLES

Semi-finals: Sharath Kamal Achanta (Ind) bt Cai Xiao Li (Sin) 11-6, 11-6, 5-11, 11-7, 6-11, 11-4; Soumyadeep Roy (Ind) bt William Henzell (Aus) 7-11, 8-11, 10-12, 12-10, 11-4, 11-2, 11-4.

Final: Sharath Kamal Achanta (Ind) bt Soumyadeep Roy (Ind) 11-8, 11-5, 11-6, 11-8.

WOMEN’S SINGLES

Semi-finals: Zhang Xue Ling (Sin) bt Beh Lee Wei (Mas) 11-8, 12-14, 11-6, 11-7, 11-9; Xu Yan (Sin) bt Tan Paey Fern (Sin) 11-13, 11-5, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8.

Final: Xu Yan (Sin bt Zhang Xue Ling (Sin) 7-11, 11-8, 12-10, 7-11, 11-6, 11-5.

Here is the link The Star Malaysia

Kathir

[PKBasu]

What a great performance by Jan-Ove Waldner to finish fourth in the the individual singles championship at the age of 38+ (he'll be 39 in October). Here is a partial list of the legendary player's long list of career titles:
2000 Olympic Games Men's Singles Silver Medallist
2000 European Team Champion
2000 World Team Champion
1997 World Singles Champion
1997 Japan Open Champion
1997 Qatar Open Champion
1996 European Singles Champion
1996 European Doubles Champion
1993 World Team Champion
1992 Olympic Games Singles Gold Medallist
1991 World Team Champion
1989 World Singles Champion
1989 World Team Champion

[PKBasu]

Apparently Waldner's playing obituary has been written often (like Dhanraj's!) but the guy keeps going on and on. Here's an interesting piece written after he won the world championship in 1997:
http://tabletennis.about.com/library/we ... 061397.htm

[BSharma]

According to The Hindu, the 17th ONGC $21,000 Asian Cup table tennis championship will be played at the Siri Fort Indoor Stadium, New Delhi from December 18 to 20, 2005. Wang Hao, the reigning Olympic silver medallist in the men's singles, and Guo Yan 2005 World Championship finalist will head the men and women's divisions. A. Sharath Kamal and Soumyadeep Roy will represent India in the men's division and Mouma Das and Poulomi Ghatak are in the women's field.

17th ONGC $21,000 Asian Cup table tennis championship

[jaydeep]

In the team events of the World table tennis championships, Bremen Sharath Kamal led the Indian men to a 3-1 victory over United States.

India bt U.S. 3-1
Sharath Kamal bt Hazinshi 9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-7
Soumyadeep Roy l Lupulesku 8-11, 11-8, 6-11, 13-11, 8-11
Subhajit Saha bt Hugh 10-12, 13-11, 11-5, 11-4
Sharath Kamal bt Lupulesku 11-9, 11-8, 11-9

Otherhand Indian women had third defeat in row ... Now its almost certain that they need to play playoff to remain in world group, where they qualified after 25 yrs.

Jaydeep.

[jaydeep]

But Indian men couldn't repeated result of Commonwealth Games and lost to Singapore.

India l Singapore 2-3

Achantha Sharath Kamal bt Xiao Li Cai 4-11, 13-11, 15-13, 11-9
Soumyadeep Roy l Zi Yang 9-11, 8-11, 2-11
Subhajit Saha bt Tien Hoe Clarence 11-2, 11-7, 11-4
Achantha Sharath Kamal l Zi Yang 7-11, 11-8, 8-11, 6-11
Soumyadeep Roy l Xiao Li Cai 5-11, 14-12, 7-11, 8-11

Jaydeep.

[jaydeep]

Indian women lost their match easily against top seed China and ended group stage without any win ... Now they will play for positions 13 to 24.

After loss against Singapore, Indian men fought back beating minnows Finland comfortably.

India bt Finland 3-0

Achanta Sharath Kamal bt Timo Tamminen 11-4, 11-8, 11-7
Soumyadeep Roy bt Benedek Olah 8-11, 11-0, 11-8, 11-1
Subhajit Saha bt Mikko Kontala 11-4, 11-7, 12-10

This win ensured Indian men pre-quarterfinal berth in the men's second division at the World Table Tennis Championships in Bremen, Germany ... Still they r having last group match against Bulgaria.

Jaydeep.

[jaydeep]

Indiam men couldn't produced good result in their last legue match against Bulgaria ... But this result didn't affected their chances of moving to pre-quarterfinals.

India l Bulgaria 1-3

Sharath Kamal bt Konstantin Parapanov 11-3, 11-5, 11-8
Soumyadeep Roy l Zhe Feng 5-11, 6-11, 3-11
Shubhajit Saha l Kessov Todor 11-7, 10-12, 8-11, 11-8, 5-11
Sharath Kamal l Zhe Feng 2-11, 3-11, 8-11

Jaydeep.