Baboor in second round, others fall

Eindhoven, Aug 4: India's Chetan Baboor entered the second round of the 45th World Table Tennis Championship, defeating English qualifier...

Eindhoven, Aug 4: India’s Chetan Baboor entered the second round of the 45th World Table Tennis Championship, defeating English qualifier Terry Young 21-19, 16-21, 21-11, 17-21, 21-13 today, according to information available here. Baboor meets I Abramov of Israel in the second round later tonight.

The Indian National champion could not make progress in doubles, though. Baboor and long-time partner S Raman qualified for the main draw with a 21-18 18-21 21-11 win over V Semipeadnii and V Sorbalo, but lost tamely to French pair C Legout and D Eloi 15-21 12-21 in the first round.

The Indian challenge in women’s doubles also came to a swift end. Poulomi Ghatak and NR Indu lost their first round match 21-9 12-21 11-21 to Japanese pair A Konishi and A Fujinuma. The Indians had qualified for the main draw with a 21-0 21-0 win over New Zealand pair C Li and K Keller.

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Earlier, the Indian challenge, in men’s singles, barring Baboor, ended with four more paddlers failing to clear the qualifying rounds yesterday.Former National champions Arup Basak and S Raman, and Bhushan Thakur and Arjun Datta bowed out, finishing second in their respective qualifying groups.

Southpaw Raman went down 21-18 21-15 to Peter Fazekas of Hungary. He got a walkover from Ngoma Ngoma of Congo and rallied well to defeat Euan Walker of Scotland 21-23 21-18 21-11, but failed to make it.

Easy for nan: In the women’s event China’s best hope Wang Nan silenced the Dutch crowd by putting homegrown qualifier Melissa Muller firmly in her place to set up a third round clash with Sweden’s Asa Svensson.

Results (prefix denotes seeding)

Men’s singles (first round): 1-Vladimir Samsonov (Belarus) bt Ferenc Pazsy (Hungary) 21-14, 19-21, 23-21, 21-13; 2-Lui Guoliang (China) bt Raymond Gonzales (Norway) 21-13, 21-9, 21-17; Kong Linghui (China) bt Zoltan Varga (Hungary) 21-15, 21-10, 21-11; Jan Ove Waldner (Sweden) bt Chang Yuan Su (Chinese Taipei) 21-10, 21-19, 21-14; Andrei Filimon (Romania) bt Yang Min (Italy) 14-21, 19-21, 21-16, 21-13,21-18.

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Women’s singles (2nd round): Wang Nan (China) bt Melissa Muller (The Netherlands) 21-14, 21-11, 21-5; 2-Li Ju (China) bt Judit Herczig (Austria) 21-7 21-13 21-12; (1st round): 1-Nan (China) bt Amy Feng (US) 21-17 21-11 21-10; 2-Ju (China) bt Agathe Costes (France) 21-13 21-15 21-7; Li Nan (China) bt 4-Qianhiong Gotsch (German) 20-22 21-17 21-16 21-14; 12-Tamara Boras (Croatia) bt Bethan Daunton 21-10 21-16 21-9.