Table Tennis: Suhana Saini shines as India enters medal rounds at World Youth Championships

After the senior table tennis players made waves in the recent past, it was the Indian U-15 table tennis girls' turn to make history on. They entered the medal rounds in the ITTF World Youth Championships in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal on Thursday.

The Indian girls, led by Suhana Saini, defeated hosts Portugal 3-1 to enter the semi-finals. They are slated to clash with the winners of the quarter-finals between the Russian Federation and Mauritius.

Taking on Portugal in the main draw on Thursday, second-seeded India did not have the best of starts with Sayani Wani Rajesh losing to Matilde Pinto. Though the Indian won the first game on extended points, the Portuguese table tennis player bounced back to win 10-12, 11-5, 11-3, 11-4. It propelled the hosts to go 1-0 up.

Read: Table tennis rankings: Manika Batra, Archana Kamath achieve best-ever World No. 10 spot

Suhana calms Indian table tennis bench's nerves

However, the reliable Suhana Saini, who has had a good run this season with three titles abroad, swung the pendulum of fortune India’s way to level the score when she defeated Mariana Rodrigues 11-8, 11-9, 11-4.

Suhana Saini won WTT titles in Slovenia and Tunis before winning the national title, too.

In the first two games, Mariana gave a good fight to the Indian table tennis player, who is known for not giving up easily. As expected, she stopped her opponent in the nick of time to go 2-0 up and complete the task in the third set to make the Indian bench breathe easy.

Pritha Vartikar of Pune completed the victory by beating Mariana Costa in straight games 11-6, 11-9, 11-4 to help India take the lead at 2-1.

Suhana Saini returned for her reverse singles match against Portugal’s No. 1 player Matilde and finished the job in style, winning the rubber 11-8, 13-11, 11-8, sending India into the medal rounds.