Dima downs Japanese prodigy to lift ITTF India Open crown
NEW DELHI: World no. 5 Dimitrij Ovtcharov beat the 13-year-old Japanese prodigy Tomokazo Harimoto 4-0 (116, 11-8, 11-4, 14-12) to win the ITTF World Tour India Open title once again after seven years at the Thyagaraj Stadium on Sunday.
The Swiss Open champion displayed sheer dominance throughout the first three games and forced Harimoto to contemplate hard on his play.
Harimoto came back roaring in the fourth game as he won four consecutive points to level the game 9-9 after being 5-9 down.
Dima reacted brilliantly to get the next point with his trademark backhand only for Harimoto to win the next point and showing that he's not backing down.
The 13-year-old forced the game to three championship points for Ovtcharov before the European champion pulled out an unusual serve to win the championship point and punch his fist in the air celebrating.
Japan's Sakura Mori completed a grand double in the ITTF World Tour India Open, adding the women's singles title to her under-21 crown here at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex on Sunday.
The sixth seeded Mori, ranked No. 37 in the world, came back from a game down to claim the crown 4-3 (7-11, 11-5, 11-8, 12-10, 6-11, 8-11, 11-6) in a fitting finish to the tournament. It was her first World Tour title.
Interestingly, 34-year old Matilda Ekholm also was on the cusp of a double, after pocketing the doubles crown in the company of her Hungarian partner Georgina Pota just an hour earlier.
She and Pota toppled the top seeded pair of Hoi Kem Doo and Ho Ching Lee from Hong Kong in a five-game thriller 9-11, 11-3, 5-11, 14-12, 11-8. Ekholm claimed the first game 11-7 even before Mori got into her groove. But once the Japanese player started firing her forehand top spins,
Ekholm couldn't find the strokes to counter her. She lost the next two games compre- hensively 3-11, 5-11 to almost turn it into a one-sided affair. But then, she retrieved some resilience from her repertoire and fought all the way to the wire in the fourth game.
She had a couple of opportunities to regain ground but failed to capitalise on them and lost 12-14.
That, however, gave her the confidence to take on her 21-year-old opponent in an attacking vein. She used her forehand smashes a lot more diligently to win the next two games 11-6, 11-8 to take the contest to the decider.
The seventh game, sadly, turned out to be an anti-climax. Ekholm committed one mistake after another to quickly go down 0-5. It turned to 2-9 and even though Ekholm clawed her way back to 5-9, it was just a matter of time after that.