Qualifier Ankita Das storms into quarters of World Junior TT
November 19th, 2011 - 5:47 pm ICT by IANSManama (Bahrain), Nov 19 (IANS) Ankita Das continued making waves in the ongoing Volkswagen World Junior Table Tennis Championships here Saturday beating higher-ranked Chinese Taipei’s Hsien-Tzu Cheng 8-11, 15-13, 10-12, 11-8, 11-7, 11-4 in the pre-quarterfinals of the girls singles event.
World No.85 Ankita will meet 12th-ranked Ruochen Gu of China in the quarterfinals later in the day.
Ranked 35, Ankita who made it to the main draw through qualification, had caused a major upset Friday when she downed third-seed Romanian Bernadette Szocs 4-3 (11-6, 11-9, 2-11, 7-11, 7-11, 11-8, 13-11) to make a strong impression at the world meet.
Continuing from where she left off Friday, the Indian didn’t have a good start but came back dramatically in the second game to win 15-13. She was down by four points at one time in the game but resurrected herself. In the third, she lost narrowly but then picked up momentum nicely to put it across her Taipei opponent, who is ranked 28.
Talking of her win, coach Bhawani Mukherjee said Ankita’s game has improved by leaps and bounds. “She did it yesterday against her Romanian rival and today against the Taipei girl. I think the second game was important and once she won that 15-13, her confidence level rose. She never let her grip on the match go,” said Mukherjee.
For the rest of the Indians at the world meet, it was curtains.
Sourav Saha, Soumyajit Ghosh and Harmeet Desai could not progress beyond the second round of the boys’ singles.
Results: Liam Pitchford (Eng) bt Sourav Saha 11-6, 11-6, 11-5, 8-11, 9-11, 11-5; Chia-Sheng Lee (Tpe) bt Soumyajit Ghosh 11-3, 11-4, 11-8, 6-11, 11-2; and Cedric Nuytinck (Bel) bt Harmeet Desai 8-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-7, 11-7.
- India win eight titles in ITTF junior TT event - Oct 02, 2011
- Inter-Institutional TT: Manika, Shamini, Mouma lose - Aug 26, 2012
- Inter-institutional TT: Most seeded players in pre-quarters - Aug 26, 2012
- National TT: Maharashtra women stun holders PSPB to enter final - Jan 25, 2012
- PSPB sweep all four singles titles at Junior National TT - Jan 09, 2012
- Harmeet, Soumyajit enter second round in World Junior TT - Nov 18, 2011
- South Zone TT: Sharath, Shamini emerge champions - Sep 09, 2012
- Petroleum bag three out of four titles in National TT - Jan 05, 2012
- Asian TT: Indian men stretch Chinese Taipei in quarters - Feb 27, 2012
- Asian Junior Table Tennis: Abhishek assures India of a bronze - Jul 24, 2011
- Asian Junior TT: Indian boys off to a winning start - Jul 20, 2011
- Ashita puts out second seed Akanksha in Indian Open squash - Sep 08, 2011
- India dominate SAF Junior TT Championships - Jun 19, 2012
- Nandrajog wins Coca-Cola Squash Open - Jul 29, 2012
- Hei survives a scare in Indian Open junior squash - Aug 30, 2012
Tags: ankita, bernadette, cedric, chinese taipei, confidence level, curtains, desai, four points, ghosh, harmeet, junior tt, leaps and bounds, opponent, quarterfinals, second game, singles results, storms, table tennis championships, tpe, volkswagen world