Hosts sweep
India dominated proceedings in the ITTF world junior circuit India junior and cadet Open, winning all four team finals at the Gautam Buddha University Hall in Greater Noida near here on Sunday.
In the 13-team event, India’s domination was almost complete as they added three silver medals as well while, South Korea winning the other in the cadet girls category. In addition, the hosts also picked up six bronze medals, leaving South Korea and the mixed team of Thailand and Singapore to share a bronze each.
The cadet girls final was where India’s harvest of golds could have been halted but South Korea, especially their no. 1 player Lee Dagyeong, did everything she could but India A still won 3-2 in a tight match in which the doubles made the difference between gold or silver.
After the loss to Lee, the Indians had to target Heo Ye Eun, Korea’s second player, to set the tone for a sweep. Anusha Kutumbale levelled scores when she won her singles against Heo but Lee downed in her straight games to restore parity. However, Munmun Kundu defeated Heo 3-1 in the reverse singles to settle the issue. In between, Anusha and Munmun combined well in the decider.
The India A combination of Payas Jain, H. Jeho and Chinmaya Somaiya proved too good for India B’s Jayabrata Bhattacharjee, Dev Shroff and Hrishkesh Malhotra in the cadet boys final as they won 3-0.
The junior girls final went down to the wire when Yashini Sivasankar beat