Mixed outing for Indian paddlers in World Junior TT

HYDERABAD: Indian paddlers endured a mixed day in the Volkswagen 2012 World Junior Table Tennis Championships with the boys team winning against Australia 3-0 while their female compatriots going down to South Korea by the same margin at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium on Monday.
The Indian paddlers moved on from their defeat to Hong Kong last evening and outclassed Australia in Stage 1 to ensure a higher place for the hosts.
It was Sudhanshu Grover once again who gave a rousing start beating Heming Hu 9-11, 10-12, 11-5, 11-9, 11-9. Then Abhishek Yadav defeated Dillon Cathcart 11-3, 11-6, 11-5 before Utkarsh Gupta completed the rout with an 11-9, 11-7, 4-11, 12-10 win against Ivan Sulfaro.
The Indian girls, on the other hand, hurt their quarterfinal chances when they went down against South Korea 0-3 in Group G.
T Reeth Rishya was rusty against Dasom Lee who won 10-12, 11-1, 13-11, 11-8 while Manika Batra battled well before losing to Yumi Jung 8-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-2, 8-11.
Suthirtha Mukherjee fought hard but lost 7-11, 11-8, 5-11, 4-11 to Zion Lee.
The Chinese boys mowed down their opponents in the two matches they played on Monday to enter the quarterfinals. First, they beat Belgium 3-0 and followed it up with another 3-0 victory over Chinese Taipei.
Top seed and title holders, Chinese girls downed Croatia and then Russia with an identical 3-0 margin.
Unlike Groups E and F in the girls section, both G and H remain unclear. There is a three-way tie possible in Group G if the Indian girl paddlers manage to beat Hong Kong on Tuesday.
If the Indians lose, they will play for positions 9-12.