Harpal Singh Bedi
Promising youngsters Swastika Ghosh and Kavya Sree Baskar, came up with impressive performances to bag bronze medals in the Oman Junior and Cadet TT Open in Muscat.
Swastika, who was part of the silver medal-winning team in the tournament, took her form into the girls’ singles as well. She remained unbeaten in the group stages, picking up six points from her three matches.
She was awarded a bye in the round of 16 to make it to the quarterfinals round. She beat Wan – Hsuan Lee in the quarters 4-3 to advance into the medal round. Taking on the talented Yi-Chen Hsu of Chinese Taipei, however, she went down 1-4 to settle for the bronze medal.
Kavya Sree also had a good run in the tournament, which is part of the ITTF Junior Circuit Premium, remaining invincible in the group stage. She continued the momentum into the knock-out stages too, scoring a comprehensive 3-0 win over Rinad El-Hasani of Jordan in the round of 16 before beating Yi-Tian Yeh of Taipei 3-0 to make it to the semis.
However, she caved in at this stage and lost 1-3 against eventual champion Pu-Syuan Cheng of Taipei in the Cadet Singles to be content with the bronze medal.