CUTTACK: In front of a good crowd, India added another golden chapter to the 21st Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Sunday when the mixed doubles pair of G Sathiyan and Archana Kamath defeated Singapore’s Pang Yu En Koen and Goi Rui Xuan 3-0 in the final.
This was India’s third gold in this year’s competition and their second in this category in the history of the competition. Sathiyan had won it with Ankita Das last time around in Surat.
The Indian bossed it in the final as they piled on the agony of their rivals, particularly on a tired Peng who could not cope with the pressure applied by the top-seeded duo.
The Singaporean pair had beaten A Sharath Kamal and Sreeja Akula in the semifinal, the only gold missing from Sharath’s closet in this meet. Apart from mixed setback, Sharath had also suffered a loss in the men’s singles category quarterfinals against Pang. Sharath squandered three match points.
Sathiyan, meanwhile, aced it in the singles category too, beating Nigerian Bode Abiodun 4-0. The other Indian to advance was Harmeet Desai who accounted for fellow Indian Sushmit Sriram 4-1.
Meanwhile, in women’s singles quarters, top-seeded Ho Tin-Tin of England beat unseeded Archana while second-seeded Madhurika Patkar and fourth seed Ayhika Mukerjee also entered the last-four stage.
In men’s doubles, two Indian pairs — Sharath and Sathiyan and Anthony Amalraj and Manav Thakkar — made it to the semifinals while the two other pairs that will challenge the Indian domination will be Pang Yu En and Chua Shao Han from Singapore and the English duo of Samuel Walker and Thomas Jarvis on Monday.
Among women, Pooja Sahasrabudhe and Krittiwika Singha Roy, Sreeja Akula and Mousumi Paul and Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee entered the semifinal while the fourth pair, top-seeded Madhurika Patkar and Archana Kamath went down to Singapore’s Goi Rui Xuan and Won Xin Ru 2-3.
Results | Mixed doubles: Final: G Sathiyan-Archana Kamath bt Pang Yu En Koen–Goi Rui Xuan (SGP) 11-1, 11-7, 11-4; Semifinals: G Sathiyan-Archana Kamath bt Harmeet Desai-Ayhika Mukherjee 11-2, 11-2, 11-9; Pang Yu En Koen–Goi Rui Xuan (SGP) bt Sharath Kamal-Sreeja Akula (IND) 13-11, 8-11, 6-11 11-8, 11-4.
Men’s quarterfinals: G Sathiyan bt Bode Abiodun (NGR) 11-7, 11-8, 11-8, 11-6; Thomas Jarvis (Eng) bt Sanil Shetty 11-5, 11-8, 8-11, 13-11, 12-10; Harmeet Desai bt Sushmit Sriram 11-4, 11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 11-8; Pang Yu En Koen (SGP) bt Sharath Kamal 7-11, 9-11, 11-8, 4-11, 11-9, 11-7, 12-10. Women’s quarterfinals: Ho Tin-Tin (Eng) bt Archana Kamath 11-9, 7-11, 11-5, 11-3, 11-6; Ayhika Mukherjee bt Mousumi Paul 11-6, 11-6, 11-2, 11-8; Sreeja Akula bt Sutirtha Mukherjee 11-5, 11-6, 11-9, 17-19, 6-11, 17-15; Madhurika Patkar bt Krittiwika Sinha Roy 11-4, 9-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-9.