Sport - Table Tennis

Mixed fortunes for Indian paddlers

New Delhi: Indian men and women experienced contrasting fortunes at the World team table tennis championships in Guangzhou (China) as the former blanked Nigeria 3-0 and the latter went down 2-3 to Australia.

The men will now play for the 33rd place in the second division against Slovenia, while the women are relegated to a play-off for the 31st place in the second division.

India, which went down 2-3 to Serbia in the play-off for 25-28th places, will now face Luxembourg in a fight for 31st spot.

In other action, all-conquering China moved in for the kill sweeping into the men’s semifinals after its women reached the final.

The host is using these championships as a warm-up for the Beijing Olympics when it is expected to make a clean sweep of the golds. The men’s team, gunning for its fourth straight team title, next faces Hong Kong.

The results: Women: Semifinals: China bt Hong Kong 3-0 and Singapore bt Japan 3-0.

Australia bt India 3-2 (Neha Agarwal bt Miao Miao 11-4, 4-11, 4-11, 11-7, 11-5; Jian Fang Lay bt Poulomi Ghatak 11-5, 13-11, 11-9; Mouma Das bt May Cho 12-10, 11-7, 12-10; Miao Miao bt Poulomi Ghatak 11-7, 11-6, 11-5; Jian Fang Lay bt Neha Agarwal 11-9, 7-11, 11-6, 13-15, 11-2.

Men: Quarterfinals: China bt Czech Republic 3-0, S. Korea bt Germany 3-1, Japan bt Taiwan 3-0, Hong Kong bt Romania 3-1.

India bt Nigeria 3-0 (Soumyadeep Roy bt Nosiru Kazeem 12-10, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9; Sharath Kamal bt Monday Meotohun 12-10, 14-12, 11-9; Amalraj Anthony bt Hakeem Hassan 11-5, 6-11, 14-12, 8-11, 11-8). — Agencies

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