New Delhi: India’s men paddlers had an easy preliminary-round outing in Group F, beating Singapore 3-1, while our women struggled past Singapore 3-2 in a marathon match, also in Group F at the Asian Games, according to reports from Hangzhou today.
G. Sathiyan defeated Izzac Yong Quek 3-1 (5-11, 12-10, 11-6, 11-9) in the first singles. Soon after, Harmeet Desai accounted for Pang Yew En Koen in a tie that went down to the wire. The top-ranked Indian won 12-10, 11-8, 6-11, 6-11, 11-5 to put India 2-0 up.
However, A. Sharath Kamal ran into early trouble and lost the first two games against Chew Zhe Yu Clarence, ranked No. 180. The Indian won the next game, but it was too late to retrieve the situation as he lost 11-13, 8-11, 12-10, 5-11. Sathiyan, though dropped a game in the reverse singles, beat Pang 11-7, 10-12, 11-9, 11-6.
In their first group match, Indian men beat Yemen 3-0.
But the women’s team that delivered a severe blow to Singapore in the last Games at Jakarta was not in the thick of form, as Sutirtha Mukherjee lost her singles against Zeng Jian 11-7, 2-11, 7-11, 10-12. Manika Batra, playing the second tie, beat Zhou Jingyi 11-9, 9-11, 11-7, 11-3 to restore parity. And Sreeja Akula consolidated further, winning her tie 12-14, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7 in a lengthy battle.
But Manika lost her reverse singles 3-11, 11-3, 10-12, 12-10, 10-12 to Zeng in another unending match that kept dragging on. The focus shifted to Sutirtha, and the Indian redeemed herself, posting the much-needed victory against Zhou with an 11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 11-5 verdict.
The group match between India and Singapore proved to be the longest as it consumed 205 minutes.
Two teams from each group qualify for the second stage before the 16 teams play the knockout rounds in each section.
–TTFI
