What’s the story?
16-year-old Archana Girish Kamath registered two successive wins at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Junior Circuit Finals at the Abhay Prashal indoor stadium in Indore on the Republic Day. She scripted history when she won against second-seeded Hong Kong’s Tze Wing Mak 10-12, 12-10, 11-4, 7-11, 11-8, 11-5 in her group to secure her berth in the quarters.
Speaking to the ITTF after her match, Archana said, “I take one match at a time. I felt very confident today. I really enjoyed playing against Mak Tze Wing. It feels so good to beat the world championship silver medalist.
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“I was enjoying today so much that I didn’t know what was going around. I put all my focus and energies in the game today. Everything came so naturally!”
Rohit Bhanja also registered two wins to advance to the boys’ quarterfinal on Thursday evening.
In case you didn’t know…
Archana took to the sport when she was only nine years old and first burst onto the scene when she won her first U-12 and also U-18 State title in 2011. She was ranked number one in Karnataka throughout 2013 in four different age groups, viz. Sub-Junior Girls (under-15), Junior Girls (under-18), Youth Girls (under-21) and Women’s Singles.
She has represented the national team and also the Asian team at the ITTF World Cadet Challenge in Barbados in October 2014.
The heart of the matter
The Bengaluru girl had earlier defeated Raquel Andrade of Portugal in her group match. In the best of seven match, she eased past the Portuguese 4-1. Archana, who is seeded eighth in the tournament, overcame her second-seeded opponent to book her place in the quarters. Mak, who is the silver medalists in the Sun International 2016 World Junior Championships, went down to the Indian paddler in a thrilling encounter.
Earlier in the month Archana bagged two titles at the 78th Junior and Youth National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships at Vadodara, representing the Airport Authority of India (AAI).
What’s next?
Archana is all set to take on USA’s Amy Wang on the second day of the tournament. However, her preparation has already started. She is determined to win her match against Amy to qualify for the girls’ quarterfinals.
Sportskeeda’s take
With the talent that she has, Archana can soon compete with the best paddlers in the world. At 16, she has her whole career in front of her and Indians can only get excited at the prospect of an Indian player winning the World Championship title and an Olympic medal in table tennis in the near future.
