the goan I network
PANAJI
G Sathiyan placed himself well within reach of a slot in the Chengdu World Cup to be held in October as the top-ranked Indian in the world defeated world No. 14 Chun Ting Wong of Hong Kong in positions 5-8 match 12-10, 10-12, 11-5, 11-6, 11-8 in the ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup at Yokohama on Saturday.
The win against Hong Kong’s No. 1 player has meant that the world No. 28 will take on Lin Yun-Ju of Chinese Taipei in a clash to grab position 5 tomorrow. The 17-year-old left-hander, who is seven places ahead of Sathiyan, recently won his first men singles title at the Challenge Plus Oman Open when he beat top-seeded Falck Mattias in the final. In the same tournament, Sathiyan had entered the semifinals. But it was a tough ask for G. Sathiyan this morning as the Indian failed to go past the second-seeded Chinese Ma Long in the quarterfinals when he lost 1-4 (5-11, 5-11, 11-6, 6-11, 3-11). Yet he managed to take a game off the reigning world and Olympic champion.
In contrast, however, Sathiyan began somewhat passive before taking the first game on extended points. But then he lost second after leading 9-5 and upped the ante to wrap up the next three games to go up the ladder. Wong, who never lost to Sathiyan before, did well to recover in the fifth game but Sathiyan went from strength to strength to seal his fate.
Sathiyan admitted it was a tough against former world No. 1 but he had a nice rhythm going against the Hong Kong player. “I had the measure of my opponent (Wong) in spite of the first two extended games. Once I took the third and fourth games, I knew I was close to it (win),” said Sathiyan.
