Soumyajit Ghosh capitulated to Masaki Yoshida 6-11, 10-12, 7-11, 5-11 in the junior boys' semifinals in the Global Junior Circuit table tennis tournament at the Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy stadium here on Saturday night.
The Indian youth spearhead was not quite able to slam the door on his Japanese opponent's immensely faster game. While the former sought to limit the contest to short exchanges, the latter's marauding forehand loop drive- powered game conquered almost everything in its way.
Ghosh seemed a shade sluggish, countered somewhat by the occasional placements he scored with. Such variations in line and speed could not however contain Masaki, the world No. 15, who seemed on the rampage right from the word go. Listed on the world rankings at 48, Ghosh just couldn't muster up a game good enough to stop a vastly superior adversary.
Earlier, the Bengal lad, groomed by Montu Ghosh, Massimo Constantini, Bhavani Mukherjee and over the last month and a half by Peter Karlsson, was the lone Indian left standing in both the junior boys and girls categories after teammate Gnanasekaran Sathiyan failed to make the quarterfinals.
On the distaff side, Karnam Spoorthy, age-wise a cadet but competing at the higher level and Ankita Das fought for places between 9 and 16.
Ghosh, ranked 48 and two places below his quarterfinal opponent Benjamin Brossier, went up 2-0, lost the next two sets, claimed the fifth but lost the sixth. In the decider the Indian lad showed nerves of steel, clinching his semifinal slot with a highly domineering 11-1 verdict over his French foe.
Spoorthy has been invited by the ITTF's Education and Training Director Mikael Andersson to train and compete in Sweden.
In cadet doubles too, the Indian challenge ground to a halt — Abhishek Yadav and Utkarsh Gupta bowing out to Jakub Dyjas and Leonardo Mutti 7-11, 7-11, 12-10, 6-11, while Olga Bliznet and Laura Pfefer crushed Mallika Bhandarkar and Manika Batra 11-6, 11-5, 11-7.
The results: Boys: Juniors: Semifinals: Yoshida Masaki (Jpn) bt Ghosh Soumyajit (Ind) 11-6, 12-10, 11-7, 11-5, Chiu Chung Hei (HK) bt Assar Khalid (Egy) 11-7, 11-8, 11-5, 9-11, 11-7. Quarterfinals: Assar Khalid (Egy) bt Sirucek Pavel (Cze) 11-9, 11-7, 5-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-9; Chiu Chung Hei (HK) bt Machi Asuka (Jpn) 6-11, 4-11, 11-5, 14-12, 11-6, 8-11, 11-3; Soumyajit Ghosh bt Brossier Benjamin (Fra) 13-11, 11-7, 9-11, 8-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-01; Yoshida Masaki (Jpn) bt Olivares Felipe (Chi) 11-4, 11-5, 11-7, 11-8.
Girls: Juniors: Semifinals: Ishikawa Kasumi (Jpn) bt Szczerkowska Magdalena (Pol) 11-7, 8-11, 11-13, 9-11, 11-5, 12-10, 11-8; Lee Ho Ching (HK) bt Kusinska Klaudia (Pol) 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5. Quarterfinals: Ishikawa Kasumi (Jpn) bt Li Isabelle Siyun (Sin) 11-9, 11-7, 11-5, 11-7; Szczerkowska Magdalena (Pol) bt NG Wing Nam (HK) 11-8, 7-11, 11-8,11-8, 4-11, 8-11, 11-8; Kusinska Klaudia (Pol) bt Abbat Alice (Fra) 7-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-9, 14-12; Lee Ho Ching (HK) bt Maeda Miyu (Jpn) 11-9, 11-6, 11-9, 9-11, 10-12, 11-7.
