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Saurav Ghosal and Ramit Tandon put on a wonderful show to win the battle of the Asians against Hong Kong in the last 16 at WSF Men’s World Teams Championship in Mulhouse, France.
Indian no.1 Saurav Ghosal was first up on court against World No.34 Max Lee. Having never lost to his Hong Kong opponent, Saurav started a strong favourite and he duly delivered putting India 1-0 ahead with a comfortable 3-1 win in just over an hour. Saurav started strongly and his usual busy game reaped good rewards as he won the first game to 3. Quarterfinalist at Asian Championship in Pakistan and the Hong Kong International in May, Max came back strongly, matching Saurav stroke for stroke and dominating the front court to open a 7-2 lead in the second. Saurav was being too aggressive and Max took full advantage to open up the front of the court. Saurav was quick to realise his mistake and adapted his game to hold back a little, allowing him a bit more time to stretch his opponent. Saurav won 7 points on the trot, including cashing in on three unforced errors from Max to lead 9-7 and closed out the game 11/8.
The third game was an equally interesting tussle with nothing to choose between the two and the score was tied at 7/7. Saurav inexplicably froze, making uncharacteristic errors and missing a boast to hand the game to Max Lee. The lapse proved momentary and Saurav regrouped quickly to get back into his rhythm and controlled the pace in the fourth game to win 11/6 to put India 1-0 ahead.
Ramit Tandon was next on court against Yip Tsz Fung. Yip has been a regular on the Junior circuit and has only graduated to the senior tour this year. Ramit did not perform to the standard he set against Henrik Mustonen earlier in this tournament but then, he never really needed to get out of second gear against the inexperienced youngster from Hong Kong. Ramit may have been unnerved a bit by the extra bounce, which allowed his opponent to pick up the shots a lot easier. But then, Ramit showed his composure to ride out the storm and won the match 11/9 11/5 11/9 in 38 minutes.
In just under 100 minutes, India had wrapped up the quarterfinal place with a match to play. In the dead rubber, Harinder Pal Sandhu lost to Leo Au.
India will now play top seeds Egypt in the quarterfinals.
Result (Round of 16):
India 2-1 Hong Kong
Saurav Ghosal 3-1 Max Lee 11/3 11/8 7/11 11/6 (61m)Ramit Tandon 3-0 Yip Tsz Fung 11/9 11/5 11/9 (38m)Harinder Pal Sandhu 1-2 Leo Au 9/11 11/7 4/11 (25m)
