Abhinandh sends fourth seed Kwon Hyuk packing

Having fallen short of his own expectations, particularly after a successful Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) Season 7, where he was adjudged the ‘Player of the League’, P. B. Abhinandh had little to show for his efforts in recent weeks.

He lost the final of the WTT Youth Contender in Vientiane in August before finishing runner-up in two National ranking (youth U-19 boys’) tournaments in Kanpur and Panchkula. But Abhinandh showed the temperament of a professional, putting those disappointments behind him to produce an exciting attacking display and trounce fourth-seeded South Korean Kwon Hyuk (18), regarded as one of the most promising young paddlers on the international circuit, 11-4, 11-7, 11-7 in the men’s singles first-round match of the WTT Feeder Chennai at the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University near here on Friday.

While Hyuk was the lone seeded player to lose in the men’s section, there were quite a few upsets in women’s. Ananya Muralidharan defeated seventh-seeded Sayali Wani 3–0, while Swara Karmarkar overcame Japan’s Cocona Muramatsu, seeded sixth, in five games.

Prisha Goel also beat eighth-seeded Swastika Ghosh in five games. “I was really upset after losing three finals. Before my singles first-round match earlier in the day, Divyanshi Bhowmick and I had lost in the first round of the mixed doubles against my sister Ananya and Mehan Senthil.

I walked out of the hall and kept thinking for a long time. I decided finally not to ‘overthink’ and try and be in the moment in singles. I am happy that I did that,” said Abhinandh. The results (Singles): Men: Manav Thakkar bt Lee Jungmok (South Korea) 11-8, 5-11, 11-8, 11-9; Harmeet Desai bt Punit Biswas 11-8, 11-6,11-9; Akash Pal bt MA Yeongmin (Korea) 11-8, 11-8, 11-7; SFR Snehit bt Divyansh Srivastava 11-6, 11-4, 11-6; P.

B. Abhinandh bt Kwon Hyuk (South Korea) 11-4, 11-4, 11-7; Payas Jain bt Lee Hyeonko (South Korea) 11-7, 11-7, 11-3; G. Sathiyan bt Priyanuj Bhattacharya 11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 4-11, 11-7; Ankur Bhattacharjee bt Sahil Rawat 11-5, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9 Women: Yang Ha Eun (South Korea) bt Kavya Baskar 11-6, 11-3, 11-7; Ananya Muralidharan bt Sayali Wani 12-10, 11-3, 11-6; Divyanshi Bhowmick bt Shriya Anand 3-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-7; Sutirtha Mukherjee bt Anusha Kutumbale 7-11, 11-7, 11-7, 4-11, 11-8; Swara Karmarkar bt Cocona Muramatsu (Jpn) 11-8, 10-12, 13-15, 11-9, 11-7; Prisha Goel bt Swastika Ghosh 11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 8-11, 12-10; Nithyashree Mani bt Naisha Rewaskar 7-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-7; Yoo Yerin (South Korea) bt Kim Seoyun (Korea) 6-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-9.