India keeps hope alive in Table tennis

Guangzhou: India's women beat Laos but lost to world champions Singapore while men put up a valiant fight before going down to fourth-seeded Chinese-Taipei in the table tennis competition at the Asian Games here on Saturday.

Despite the early setbacks, India are expected to reach the quarter-finals in the men and women's team event.

India's highest ranked player at 192, Mouma Das, Madhurika Patkar and Shamini Kumaresan did not have much difficulty in getting past their opening group match against Laos.

Shamini, who played a vital role in India winning a surprising silver in the Delhi Commonwealth Games, breezed past Southamavong Thiphakone 11-5, 11-7, 11-4 in the first singles.

Madhurika had a minor hiccup when she dropped the third game before recovering to beat Sengdavieng Douangpanya 11-7, 11-3, 9-11, 11-6.

Mouma registered a straight sets 11-5, 11-6, 11-2 win over Sengdavy Phiathep and closed the match for India.

The India women, however, suffered a contrasting defeat later in the day to Commonwealth gold medal winners Singapore.

The first singles between between Madhurika Patkar and world no 3 Feng Tianwei was the lone positive for India in the whole match.

World no 235 Madhurika proved more than a match for her formidable opponent and took the intense battle into the deciding fifth game. But then Feng showed why she is part of the world cup winning team as the Singaporean came back strongly to win the fifth game and the match 11-6, 11-3, 7-11, 10-12, 11-4.

Shamini too managed to stretch world no 7 yuegu Wang but eventually lost 11-7, 5-11, 9-11, 5-11.

Poloumi could not do much in her first match of the day and was handed over a humiliating 2-11, 1-11, 0-11 defeat by world no 29 Jiawei Li.

Indian women play Maldives in next group game on Sunday.

Earlier, the men's team, comprising Sharath Kamal, Amalraj Anthony and Soumyadeep Roy, team lost to the stronger Chinese Taipei in their first group tie.

Chih Yuan Chuang beat Amalraj 11-9, 11-3, 11-6 in the first singles.

Chih Chi Wu got the better of India's ace paddler Sharath 7-11, 11-9, 14-12, 13-11.

Chien-An Chen won a tough 5-11, 11-8, 15-13, 9-11, 11-9 battle against Soumyadeeep and won the match for Chinese Taipei.

India now play their last group match against Vietnam Sunday.