Magdeburg: Soumyajit Ghosh and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, two of India’s ace table tennis players battled it out to lead their respective groups in the Seamaster 2018 ITTF World Tour Platinum German Open on Thursday.
Ranked no. 87, Gnanasekaran fought it out to earn a place in the next round. He first had to beat Man Ho Kwan of Hong Kong 9-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-7, 11-3, 8-11 and 11-3 and then had to fend off some tough competition in the form of Ovidiu Lonescu of Romania.
At the end, he won 13-11, 8-11, 11-8, 3-11, 3-11, 11-8, 14-12. Gnanasekaran then defeated former world junior champion Jang Woojlin 4-0 and now stands just a step away from making it into the main round of this competition.
Soumyajit on the other hand easily defeated Chile’s Alfonso Olave 4-1 and Quentin Robinot 4-1 to progress to the main draw. Despite losing to Olave 5-11 in the first game, he made a strong comeback to win the next four 11-5, 13-11, 11-5, 11-7 to set up a wonderful victory.
Soumyajit, ranked no.93 defeated 64-ranked Robinot 11-5, 13-11, 11-5, 11-7.
Sharad Kamal Achanta and Harmeet Desai, the other Indian top players lost their second games on Wednesday to exit the tournament.