17-year-old Pang Yu En Koen of Singapore stunned the favorite Sharath Kamal in the quarterfinals of the 21st Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships at Cuttack on Sunday.
Pang, who is ranked No.376 entered the main draw through a tough qualification group on Saturday. He showed the same form in the main rounds as he first got past Manush Shah in the round of 32 before upsetting seventh seed Olajide Omatoyo in the next round.
If these upsets weren’t enough, Pang then stole the headlines on Sunday after he went on to beat the tournament favorite Achanta Sharath Kamal in a pulsating quarterfinal clash.
After having taken a 3-1 lead, it looked a matter of time before Sharath Kamal eased past his opponent into the next round. But a determined Pang did not lose hope and came back strongly to force errors of the Indian.
In the final game, Sharath, who was winning it comfortably 10-7 lost his serve which then saw the young Singaporean claim five straight points to produce the best win of his career.
Meanwhile, the Indian pairing of Sathiyan and Archana Kamath bagged gold in the mixed doubles category in what was the final game on Sunday.
Results:
Mixed doubles: Final: G. Sathiyan & Archana Kamath bt Pang Yu En Koen & Goi Rui Xuan (Sgp) 11-1, 11-7, 11-4;
Semifinals: Sathiyan & Kamath bt Harmeet Desai & Ayhika Mukherjee 11-2, 11-2, 11-9; Pang & Goi bt A. Sharath Kamal & Sreeja Akula 13-11, 8-11, 6-11 11-8, 11-4.
Singles: Quarterfinals:
Men: G. Sathiyan bt Bode Abiodun (Ngr) 11-7, 11-8, 11-8, 11-6; Thomas Jarvis (Eng) bt Sanil Shetty 11-5, 11-8, 8-11, 13-11, 12-10; Harmeet Desai bt Sushmit Sriram 11-4, 11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 11-8; Pang Yu En Koen (Sgp) bt A. Sharath Kamal 7-11, 9-11, 11-8, 4-11, 11-9, 11-7, 12-10.
Women : Ho Tin-Tin (Eng) bt Archana Kamath 11-9, 7-11, 11-5, 11-3, 11-6; Ayhika Mukherjee bt Mousumi Paul 11-6, 11-6, 11-2, 11-8; Sreeja Akula bt Sutirtha Mukherjee 11-5, 11-6, 11-9, 17-19, 6-11, 17-15; Madhurika Patkar bt Krittiwika Sinha Roy 11-4, 9-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-9.
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