A new day dawned on the table tennis world as the Land of the Rising Sun walked away with three of the four individual titles on offer in the Global Cadet Challenge and Junior Finals table tennis championships 2010. But for Korea's Woo Jin Jang clinching the cadet boys' crown, Eka So in cadet girls, Kasumi Ishikawa in junior girls and Masaki Yoshida in junior boys, made it a glorious golden treble for Japan, as the curtains came down on the week-long extravaganza at the Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy indoor stadium on Sunday.
The straight-set triumph apart, Yoshida was easily the most domineering of the trio. Almost imperial in his approach, he rarely allowed the exchanges to go past the fifth ball stage, as opponent Chung Hei Chiu was often reduced to being a mere bystander.
An attacking backhand proved to be his whiplash, a scorcher from that front leaving Chiu limp on one occasion. The Japanese player frequently moved to his right, converting sure-shot forehanders into blistering backhanders while leaving his Hong Kong adversary bemused.
Domination
Earlier, adept at abruptly pepping up the pace, Kasumi Ishikawa raised domination to an art. Endowed with the elegance patent to most left-handers, Ishikawa directed the proceedings, regardless of whether it was diagonally, down the line or middle.
An all-encompassing forehand let little past her, helped along immensely by a high toss serve that tantalisingly left Hong Kong's Ho Ching Lee guessing till the very point of contact, as to what lay in store for her. Eka So's squeaky grunts greatly belied her prowess as she pulled off the biggest upset of the championship, felling World no. 3 Xi Liu of China.
The results: Boys: Juniors: Singles (final): Masaki Yoshida (Jpn) bt Chung Hei Chiu (HKG) 11-7, 11-6, 11-7, 11-7.
Cadets: Singles (final): Woo Jin Jang (Kor) bt Lifeng Zhu (Chn) 9-11,11-6, 11-8, 11-9, 3-11, 11-9. Semifinals: Lifeng bt Leonardo Mutti (Ita) 10-12, 14-12, 12-10, 11-6, 11-6; Woo Jin bt Yuto Muramatsu (Jpn) 11-7, 7-11, 8-11, 11-3, 13-11, 11-9. Doubles (final): Woo Jin/ Lifeng bt Dyjas / Leonardo 11-5, 11-4, 12-10. Semifinals: Woo Jin / Lifeng bt Tristan Flore / Tamas Lakatos 11-5, 11-9, 11-7; Jakub / Leonardo bt Lee Chia-Sheng/ Yuto 11-7, 11-9, 11-9.
Girls: Juniors: Singles (final): Ishikawa Kasumi (Jpn) bt Ho Ching Lee (HK) 12-10, 10-12, 11-7, 13-15, 12-10, 13-11.
Cadets: Singles (final): Eka So (Jpn) bt Xi Liu (Chi) bt 11-6, 11-9, 2-11, 3-11, 12-10, 15-13. Semifinals: Xi bt Ariel Hsing (USA) Ariel 11-9, 11-7, 15-17, 11-9, 11-8; Eka bt Doo Hoi Kem (HK) 11-9, 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 13-11. Doubles (final): Doo Hoi Kem / Xi bt Ariel /Caroline 11-6, 11-9, 11-4. Semi-finals: Doo/ Xi bt Olga Bliznet /Laura Pfefer 11-4, 11-9, 11-9; Ariel/ Caroline bt Chin Hsiao-Chun/ Eka 8-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-9, 12-10.
