Indian trio seal Tokyo Olympic Games berths

India’s Achanta Sharath Kamal in action during the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena yesterday. PICTURE: ITTF / Remy Gros.] India’s Achanta Sharath Kamal in action during the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena on Thursday. PICTURE: ITTF / Remy Gros.

India’s table tennis players Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sutirtha Mukherjee qualified for this year’s Tokyo Olympic Games at the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament being played in Doha on Thursday. The Asian qualifiers, being played at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena, had six Olympic berths up for grabs in the men’s singles events. The spots for Tokyo were to be allotted to the five group winners and the highest-ranked second-placed player. While Sathiyan topped the South Asia group with two wins in as many matches, Sharath Kamal ended as the top-ranked second-placed player, handing him the sixth slot for Tokyo 2020. While this will be a maiden Olympics for G Sathiyan, it will be a fourth one for veteran Sharath Kamal. Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan both scored dominant wins over Pakistan’s Mohamed Rameez yesterday. The veteran Sharath Kamal thrashed Rameez 11-4, 11-1, 11-5, 11-4 in little over 22 minutes in the second men’s singles round-robin match in the South Asia group. Later in the day, Sathiyan confirmed his maiden Olympic appearance with a 11-9, 15-13, 5-11, 7-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-8 win over Rameez. Kamal had lost his opening match 9-11, 13-15, 11-5, 11-7, 12-10, 9-11, 8-11 to compatriot Gnanasekaran Sathiyan. “It was a good match against Sathiyan but I made some errors and he capitalised on them to win the match. I was a bit nervous before playing against Rameez as I had never faced him before. But after the first few games I was confident that my strategy was working and I executed it well to maintain control,” world No. 32 Kamal said after qualifying. Kamal, 38, had been in impressive form before the Covid-19 pandemic struck the world. With no matches happening, Kamal’s preparation for the Olympics was badly impacted, much like others. However, he refused to give up and returned to the arena after a break of almost a year at the recently concluded WTT Contender Doha and a last-16 finish in the two events, as well as defeating world No. 16 Patrick Franziska gave him enough confidence ahead of the Asian Qualifiers. Later, Mukherjee booked her maiden Olympic berth as she overcame compatriot Manika Batra 4-2 (7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 4-11, 11-5, 11-4) in a thrilling encounter. In the women’s singles event, world No. 62 Manika Batra and world No. 95 Sutirtha Mukherjee were drawn together. And since Manika and Sutirtha were the only entrants in the South Asia group, one was assured of winning the qualification for Tokyo Olympics. Despite her defeat against Sutirtha, Manika will still have a good chance of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics because of her ranking. Meanwhile, in Group 2 in the Central Asia region, no.3 seed Iran’s Neda Shahsavari emerged victorious in her opening group stage. Shahsavari upset the seeding list in her meeting with Kazakhstan’s Zauresh Akasheva, powering past the second seed 4-1 (11-8, 13-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-3). Shahsavari is now well-placed in her pursuit of top spot in the group, the same can be said regarding Uzbekistan’s Rimma Gufranova over in Group 1. The no.4 seed played catch-up for the majority of her encounter with top seed Anastassiya Lavrova, but Gufranova never lost hope and her determination was rewarded with a six-game win over her Kazakh counterpart (7-11, 11-6, 12-14, 11-3, 11-7, 11-3). The class of Thailand’s Orawan Paranang was on clear display in her second South East Asia fixture, making it back-to-back wins with her crushing performance against Philippines’ Jannah Romero (11-8, 11-6, 11-8, 11-4). Singapore’s Clarence Chew has assumed control in Group 2 of the men’s singles South East Asia event, with his victory over Thailand’s Padasak Tanviriyavechakul (11-7, 11-3, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7) propelling him to the group summit. Chew’s fellow compatriot Pang Yew En Koen has negotiated Group 1 with a 100 percent win record, besting Indonesia’s Rafanael Nikola Niman in four games (11-6, 11-7, 11-7, 11-9) to advance. Central Asia top seed Kirill Gerassimenko of Kazakhstan also moves through to the next stage of the competition following his gruelling Group 1 affair with Iranian no.4 seed Nima Alamian (14-12, 9-11, 3-11, 11-7, 11-4, 9-11, 11-9). Over in Group 2, Alamian’s national colleague Noshad Alamiyan enjoyed his second success of the day, outclassing Uzbekistan’s Zokhid Kenjaev 4-1 (11-5, 11-2, 11-7, 5-11, 11-4) to swing the tide in his favour.