Japan shocked defending champions China to lift the cadet girls title while South Korea upset runners-up Chinese Taipei for the cadet boys crown in the 20th Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships at NSCI's Sardar Vallabhai Patel Indoor Stadium here on Sunday.
China, however, managed to salvage some pride by retaining the junior boys title defeating South Korea in a 3-2 thriller and the Junior Girls crown, beating Japan 3-1.
Meanwhile, India's junior boys beat Bahrain 3-0 to retain the ninth position while the junior girls overcame Chinese Taipei 3-1 to finish seventh, improving by two places from the ninth spot in the previous championships in Doha.
India's cadet boys, who were sixth in Doha, beat Hong Kong to finish fifth, while the cadet girls, who were sixth last year, retained the same position after going down to Chinese Taipei 0-3. Cadet world No. 2 Mima Ito was Japan's saviour winning her opening singles, doubles and deciding singles after world No. 1 Miu Hirano was shocked in the second singles tie and the reverse singles.
South Korea blanked Chinese Taipei 3-0 for the cadet boys title. World No. 3 An Jaehyun and No. 8 Kim Daewoo gave the Koreans a 2-0 advantage even as Daewoo was taken the full distance in the second singles. Daewoo later combined with world No. 1 Minha Hwang to beat the Taipei pair of Yun-Ju and Li Hsin-Yang in straight games to wrap up the victory.
South Korea, who were on course to annex the junior boys title, frittered away a 2-0 lead against China, who fought their way back, winning the next three rubbers, thanks to world No. 7 Zhou Qihao, world No. 5 Liang Jingkun and world No. 3 Yu Ziyang who initiated a spectacular recovery to change the script.
In the junior girls final, China rallied to beat Japan 3-1. Though world No. 2 Liu Gaoyang was stunned in the opening rubber by world No. 10 Miyu Maeda 1-3, the Chinese won her reverse singles. World No. 7 Chen Xingtong and world No. 8 Manyu Wang gave the Chinese a 2-1 lead before Gaoyang beat world No. 6 Hitomi Sato in straight games to retain the trophy.
Earlier, in a rare and only upset of the team championships, South Korea sent defending champions China packing in the cadet boys semifinals 3-1. Chinese Taipei's cadet boys fought grimly in the other semifinal to ward off a Japanese threat. But the No. 2 Taipei team won 3-2 with Chen Chun-Hsiang making the difference by winning both his singles, including the decider against Japan's top player Takuto Izumo 3-2. The Japanese, after being down 0-2, levelled the score only to go down in the last game, losing by the minimal point. –sports@dnaindia.net
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