G Sathyan created history when he assured himself of a bronze afterbeating world No. 4 Li Gao Yuan from China 6-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-7, 12-10,12-10 to enter the semi-finals of the Junior Asian Championships atBangkok.
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This the second time an Indian junior has done the country proud afterSujoy Gorphade made the grade way back in 1980. Incidentally, this isbe the first time when India will bag two medals from the juniorchampionships.
G Sathyan was the Commonwealth Youth Games Gold Medalist in Junior Boys.Earlier in the day Sathyan had blanked out world no. 9 Mavhi Asuka4-0 before taking on the second-seeded Chinese in the quarter-finals.In the see-saw match, the Indian made a false start losing the firsttwo sets before regrouping himself to take the next four.
The No. 2 seed waged a good battle in the fifth and sixth sets but theIndian was too goo to hold his nerve to outwit the Chinese, taking thesets at 12-10, 12-10, after the two had tied at the score of 8-all.
Team coach Sunil Babras was understandably happy when he lavishedpraises on young Sathyan. “He did exceedingly well in the teamchampionship the other day after losing his first singles. Similarly,today he lost the first two sets but never lost his confidence. Thatpaid rich dividends,” said Babras.
But luck did not favour the other Indian, Souyamajit Ghosh who lost toJi Gaoyuan 5-11, 9-11, 9-11, 12-10, 2-11. The fourth seeded Chineseproved to be a hard nut to crack as he took complete control rightfrom the word go. The Chinese, however, conceded one set beforeshutting out the Indian challenge.
Earlier, Harmeet Desai who qualified for the main draw lost to anotherChinese in the pre-quarterfinals.
