![\"Commonwealth-Table-Tennis-silver-India\"](\"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Commonwealth-Table-Tennis-silver-India.jpg\")
New Delhi: Singapore, deservedly, retained the men and women team titles in the 19th edition of the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships at the Thyagraj Stadium here today. Their women paddlers first downed England 3-0 and their men followed it up with a perfect decimation of India for a similar score, taking a little over 90 minutes in all.<\/p>\n
The only hiccup, however, was their third player Ma Liang who was taken to the full distance by India\u2019s Sanil Shetty. But for this minor aberration the Asian powerhouse yet again proved, if any proof was needed, how the rest of the Commonwealth nations in fray lagged far behind them\u2014in pace, fitness and the mental ability to come out of any tricky situation.\n<\/p>\n
One example of that was Ma Liang\u2019s game against Sanil Shetty. The left-handed Indian, who had his excellent moments in the match against an edgy Ma, looked to coast along nicely in the decider with a 7-4 lead. Then the forehand shots, his strong points, deserted him and he was forced into errors at the net. Seizing the opportunity, the world No. 180 Singaporean took the next seven points to seal the fate of India. Sanil lost 8-11, 11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 7-11.<\/p>\n
Even before Ma played a gripping match, his compatriot Zhan Jian showed glimpses of Singaporean grit in large measure in the first game. Trailing 6-10 in the first match against Soumyajit Ghosh, the highest world ranked player here at 26, first equalled the score at 10-10 before notching up 13-11 win. That set the ball rolling for the top-ranked team in the championships as Zhan completed his job clinically to win 13-11, 11-8, 11-3.<\/p>\n
Achanta Sharath Kamal was completely off colour against a superior Li Hu as the 56th ranked player pounded the Indian with blistering forehands. Even his backhand topspin serves brooked little challenge from the Indian as Li won 3-0 in double quick time. Only in the third game did Sharath give his opponent some fight but his resistance was too little and too late as Li swiftly wound up his business at the table with a fast-paced game.<\/p>\n
Sharath did admit as much after the match. \u201cIt was a bad result for us. But they were far superior, very sharp and equally well focused,\u201d he said. Men\u2019s coach Kamalesh Mehta, while praising the champions\u2019 efforts, admitted that our paddlers needed to do a lot of work to measure up the top Tt playing nations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to traverse a long distance. They were not only sharp, but also very much focused. I could only admire their mental aptitude because at no stage was any of their players looked hassled when the chips were down. They could always raise their game and we must learn from them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As for the English women, there were occasions when both Joanna Parker and Kelly Sibley made brilliant efforts to stage comebacks. They managed to take a game each off their opponents, but Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu shut out whatever little challenge came from the two English women. Their third English player, Ho Tin-Tin, just went through the formality lost to in straight games.<\/p>\n
Women:<\/strong> Singapore beat England 3-0 (Feng Tianwei bt Joanna Parker 11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7; Yu Mengyu bt Kelly Sibley 14-12, 16-14, 9-11, 11-9; Zhou Yihan bt Ho Tin-Tin 11-4, 12-10, 11-8).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The only hiccup, however, was their third player Ma Liang who was taken to the full distance by India\u2019s Sanil Shetty. But for this minor aberration the Asian powerhouse yet again proved, if any proof was needed, how the rest of the Commonwealth nations in fray lagged far behind them\u2014in pace, fitness and the mental ability to come out of any tricky situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-table-tennis-table-tennis"],"yoast_head":"\n
Results (Team finals): Men:<\/strong> Singapore beat India 3-0 (Zhan Jian bt Soumyajit Ghosh 13-11, 11-8, 11-3; Li Hu bt A. Sharath Kamal 11-4, 11-4, 11-9; Ma Liang bt Sanil Shetty 11-8, 9-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7.<\/p>\nNew Delhi: Singapore, deservedly, retained the men and women team titles in the 19th edition of the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships at the Thyagraj Stadium here today. Their women paddlers first downed England 3-0 and their men followed it up with a perfect decimation of India for a similar score, taking a little over 90 minutes in all.<\/p>\n