Paddlers Archana Kamath, Selena Selvakumar advance in Thailand Open

Archana Kamath secured wins over Natkamon Kamkorn and Wong Xin Ru

Bangkok, May 15 (IANS): Women paddlers Archana Kamath and Selena Selvakumar topped their respective groups to advance to the main round in the cadet section of the SET Thailand Open junior and sub-junior table tennis tournament here on Friday.

Archana scored two wins, beating Natkamon Kamkorn of Thailand and Wong Xin Ru of Singapore while Selena came first in her group with wins over Papatchaya Hoarakkat of Thailand and Thaushi Rodrigo of Sri Lanka, according to a release.

Srusthi Halengadi finished second in her group in the cadet section. The lone entrant in cadet boys category Jain Payas lost both his matches to bow out.

Lalrin Puia and Seth Sarthak made promising starts to their campaign with wins in junior boy's section.

Earlier, Indian girls went down fighting to top seed Hong Kong 3-2 in the semi-finals of the cadet team event.

Both the cadet and junior girls team won the bronze medal in the tournament. The Indian junior boys team however won the consolation event, beating Thailand 3-1.

The results (qualifying round):

Junior boys: Seth Sarthak (Ind) bt Napat Panicharoen 10-12, 11-7, 11-6, 11-13, 13-11; Huang Chien Tu (Tha) bt Utkarsh Gupta 11-3, 11-9, 11-2; Pattartorn Passan (Tha) bt Sanish Ambedkar (Ind) Lalrin Puia bt Deva Prasetia (Ina) 11-3, 11-7, 11-2.

Cadet boys: Jeong Tachin (Kor) bt Jain Payas (Ind) 10-12, 9-11; 11-8, 11-5, 11-9; Purit Verakultawan (Tha) bt Jain Payas 11-8, 11-13, 1-11, 11-6, 11-8.

Junior girls: Sreeja Akula bt Octaviani Chese (Ina) 11-0, 11-8, 11-1; Tanaka Ayaka (Jap) bt Archana Kamath 11-7, 11-7, 11-4.

Cadet girls: Archana Kamath (Ind) bt Natkama Kamkom (Tha) 11-6, 11-8, 11-6; Archana Kamath (Ind) bt Wong Xin Ru (Sin) 11-5, 11-9, 9-11, 8-11, 11-6.

Selena Selvakumar bt Papatchaya Hoarakkat (Tha) 3-11, 5-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-2; Selena Selvakumar bt Thaushi Rodrigo (SL) 11-3, 11-9, 8-11, 12-14, 11-5

Srushti Halengadi bt Pakawa Karnthong (Tha) 11-6, 11-6, 11-5; Wan Ka Leung (HK) bt Srushti Halengadi 11-6, 11-4, 11-4.

Cadet girls semi-finals: Hong Kong bt India 3-2 (Lee ka Yee bt Varuni Jaiswal 11-1, 9-11, 11-4, 10-12, 11-3; Wong Chin You lost to Archana Kamath 4-11, 7-11, 7-11; Ng Ka Man lost to Srushti Halengadi 7-11, 11-5, 9-11, 7-11;

Lee Ka Yee bt Archna Kamath 9-11, 13-11, 122-14, 13-11, 11-6; Wong Chin Yau bt Varuni Jaiswal 12-10, 11-2, 11-9).