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India booked their place in the last 16 with a commanding 3-0 win over Finland in their second Pool H match at the Men’s World Team Championship in Mulhouse, France.
After the tight escape against Argentina, Indian team made the bold choice of bringing in Ramit Tandon in place of Harinder Pal Sandhu. The gamble paid rich dividends as Ramit Tandon tamed the dangerous Henrik Mustonen in the opening game and set India on course for a 3-0 win that takes them to top of the Pool.
22-year old Henrik Mustonen just achieved career best 36th in world rankings, a whopping 196 places higher than Ramit and was heavy favourite going into the match.
The young lad showed no fear and went for the jugular, volleying brilliantly to give Henrik Mustonen the run around. Ramit wrapped up the first game to 4 as a shell-shocked Henrik tried to figure out what hit him in those opening minutes. There was no letting up from Ramit as he continued his attacking style, going for his volleys and backhand drops to torment the Finnish No.2. Henrik, who has beaten some players and is coming off a good run on the PSA Tour, found some hope in the third game as Ramit lost the edge a little. With the match ball in sight, Ramit got the nerves and kept the ball in play instead of going for the kill. Henrik took advantage of that little window of doubt to snatch the third game.
But, the Indian team snapped Ramit out of his momentary lapse and the lethal weapon was back in play, putting away the point at every chance with a snap volley to the front or a backhand drop that was just out of reach of an exasperated Mustonen.
Yesterday’s hero Mahesh Mangaonkar was next on court and proved too powerful for Matias Tuomi. Mahesh went in as a heavy favourite and stamped his authority early on and never let go. Mahesh unleashed his power, smashing some hard balls across the court and romped home in style, winning 11/4, 11/7, 11/7 to seal the win and a last 16 spot for the Indians, leaving Saurav Ghosal to play out a dead rubber.
With the match won, Saurav Ghosal and Olli Tuominen would have been forgiven for playing out a dull match in the dead rubber. But, the seasoned professionals were locked in a high-quality battle that was good value for the money. World No.20 Saurav Ghosal played his usual high-intensity game using his youthful exuberance to tease and torment the “Flying Finn”, at 34 very much an elder statesman on the pro-tour. Saurav continued the aggressive game employed by his teammates and combined with this precision, proved too hard for the Finland No.1. Saurav raced away with the first two games with his volleys proving difficult to get to for the “Flying Finn” but Olli used his wealth of experienced to stage a rally in the third game. Olli won the third to 7 and carried on with his revival into the fourth. But, Saurav is far too seasoned to let an opportunity slip and he rode out the challenge to close out the game to 9 and completed a very impressive 3-0 win over Finaland.
A jubilant coach Cyrus said, “I am very delighted with what happened today. I am proud of how they performed today and am looking forward to the match against Venezuela tomorrow.”
Ramit Tandon 3-1 Henrik Mustonen 11/4, 11/6, 11/13, 11/4Mahesh Mangaonkar 3-0 Matias Tuomi 11/4, 11/7, 11/7Saurav Ghosal 3-1 Olli Tuominen 11/7, 11/2, 7/11, 11/9
