TT: Cadet boys, Jr girls in quarters

Indias junior girls and cadet boys found a common whipping horse in Singapore to qualify for the second stage after the junior boys lost their Group 2 matches 03 to both Japan and North Korea in the 20th Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships being held at the Sardar Patel Stadium here FridayThe junior boys who have failed to make it to the quarterfinals would now play the 914 position matches but the cadet girls can make the quarterfinal cut provided they beat Jordan in Round 3 laterIndia could have taken the top perch in cadet boys after the way Manav Thakkar played against Chinese Taipei He won both his reverse singles and combined well with doubles partner Akaash Nath But before that Thakkar played a wonderful match against Chen ChunHsiang which set the ball rollingThakkar should have won the match after leading 20 and in the decider 108 But a couple of net errors at matchpoint reversed fortunes in favour of the Taipei boyUndaunted he combined well with Nath to win the doubles and his reverse singles This was probably the trigger for the team to do well against Singapore where both Thakkar and Nath wore down their rivals to win 32As for the junior girls Ayhika was the star winning both her singles against Singaporersquos Hui Li Tay 116 116 711 118 and Herng Hwee Yee 811 118 911 115 115The Indian down 02 struck form suddenly to surprise her rival in the third game From there it was the Indian all the way as Yee lost the next two games tamelyWith China and South Korea in junior boys section and China and Japan in junior girls category sitting pretty with direct entry into the quarterfinals Saturday the onus was on group toppers to maintain their preeminence and without a hiccup they took their appointed place after beating their rivalsAs for the junior boys a clear picture about who will join the group leaders as the second team to qualify for the main draw would emerge only after the third round matches The same was the case with some of the cadet girlsrsquo teams which would want to grab the vacant second slots in their respective groups But in cadet boys Group 4 saw some extraordinary results with No4 team Bahrain scoring over both Kazakhstan and Sri LankaIn terms of reputation Bahrain was a relatively weaker team considering the potential of Kazakhstan But the former surprised both the Kazakhs as well as the Sri Lankans to take second place behind Japan Bahrain beat Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka by a similar 30 margin while losing by the same score to JapanResultsJunior Girls Group 1 Hong Kong bt Chinese Taipei 30 Hong Kong bt Sri Lanka 30 Chinese Taipei bt Sri Lanka 30 Group 2 South Korea bt Singapore 30 South Korea bt India 30 India bt Singapore 31 Sagarika Mukherjee lost to Herng Hwee Yee 119 1113 311 511 Ayhika Mukherjee bt Hui Li Tay 116 116 711 118 Priyadarshini Das bt En Hui Tan 117 117 117 Ayhika Mukherjee bt Herng Hwee Yee 811 118 911 115 115 Group 3 North Korea bt Thailand 31 North Korea bt Iran 30 Thailand bt Jordan 30 Iran bt Jordan 30 Thailand bt Iran 30 North Korea bt Jordan 30Cadet Boys Group 1 China bt Hong Kong 30 China bt Iran 30 Group 2 Chinese Taipei bt India 32 Lin YunJu bt Akaash Nath 113 118 117 Chen ChunHsiang bt Manav Thakkar 711 411 116 115 1210 Lin YunJuLin HsinYang lost to ThakkarNath 711 117 711 711 Lin YunJu lost to Manav Thakkar 117 711 711 118 511 Chen ChunHsiang bt Akaash Nath 1210 115 911 117 Chinese Taipei bt Singapore 31 India bt Singapore 32 Akaash Nath lost to Shao Feng Ethan Poh 311 411 119 611 Manav Thakkar bt Lucas Tan 119 116 411 118 ThakkarNath bt Shao FengLucas 711 119 118 119 Manav Thakkar lost to Shao Feng Ethan 116 811 411 911 Akaash Nath bt Lucas Tan 811 511 113 1210 117 Group 3 South Korean bt Thailand 30 Group 4 Japan bt Sri Lanka 30 Japan bt Kazakhstan 30 Bahrain bt Sri Lanka 30 Bahrain bt Kazakhstan 30 Japan bt Bahran 30 Sri Lanka bt Kazakhstan 31