New Delhi: Impressive performances by seniors, reflecting the current progress that India has been making in table tennis, rubbed on the junior paddlers who swept the team titles in Junior Girls and Cadet Boys, apart from winning singles title and a host of other medals in what turned out to be a profitable 2018 Serbia Junior and Cadet Open in Belgrade that concluded last evening.
The best performance came from Payas Jain of Delhi who first bagged the Cadet Boys team event title in the company of Vishwa Deenadayalan and then went on to claim the Cadet Boys singles crown, even as the Junior Girls captured the team title.
In fact, India’s A and B teams both made the top-of-podium finish with the former claiming gold, courtesy Payas and Vishwa while the latter, with Divyansh Srivastava and Aadarsh Om Chhetri had to settle for the silver.
In the final, Team A beat Team Be 3-1-the lone win for Team B coming through Divyansh when he beat Payas Jain 11-7, 11-9, 6-11, 12-10 in the opening tie. But Vishwa defeated Aadarsh 11-7, 11-7, 11-8 and later Payas won 12-10, 11-6, 11-7, including a doubles reverse 12-10, 11-8, 12-10 to end Team B’s title hopes.
But before that the duo had accounted for China’s B team, comprising Liu Shuanghao, Wang Shuai and Xu Haotian, 3-1 and then the Indian pair recorded a similar margin of win over Sweden’s Elliot Lundqvist and Daniel Lindso in the semis. On the other hand, Divyanish Srivastava and Aadarsh, tested to the core, registered 3-0 win against Saudi Arabia’s Khalid Alshareif and Salem Alsuwailen but got extended in the semi-finals which they won 3-2 against China’s Deng Hapieng and Tian Chufan.
