China start firm favourites

Powerhouse Ch­­ina are overwhelming favo­u­rites but teams like Japan, So­uth Korea, Chinese Taipei and France can create upsets in the Volkswagen 10th World ju­nior (under-18) table tennis to­urnament  which gets under w­ay with team championship at SAAP Sports Complex, Ga­­c­hibowli, from Sunday.

The individuals events begin from December 12.

The bronze medal winning boys team of Soumyajit Gh­o­s­h,  G Sathiyan and Harmeet De­sai at Bahrain last year rai­s­ed new hopes  for table tenni­s in India.  But, unfortunately, th­ey will not be there as they ha­ve crossed the age limit.

India will be fielding a new young team in left-hander Abhishek Yadav, Utkarsh Gu­p­ta, Sabhya Virmani and Sudhanshu Grover.  According to co­ach Kamlesh Mehta , it is an­ inexperienced team. “We ar­e underdogs but we are confident of a good show. We ha­v­e a talented bunch. We  had a ­15-day camp at Sweden with P­eter Karlsson. The boys look in good frame of mind. It is a World championship  and we e­xpect a tough competition,” said

Kamlesh said the  camp fo­c­ussed on the various aspects o­f the game, particularly on th­e service which is very imp­ortant. In the boys Indian te­a­m, Grover is the highest ra­n­ked player. He is ranked 178 in the world. But Yadav has sh­own fine promise. He had up­set a top seed South Korean pla­yer in Asian Junior champ­ionship on his way to the se­m­i-finals.

India  start their ca­mpaign against Chile and before me­e­ting the formidable Hong Ko­ng in their second match on Sunday .

The girls team is more expe­r­ienced than the boys. There ar­e two players, Manika Batra Mallika Bhandarkar and T Reeth Rishya,  who have the ex­perience of playing in world ch­ampionship. However, Ma­l­­­­lika has not been included in the team event. She will play in the individual event. Coach Bhawani Mukherjee  exuded confidence. “We have a good te­am.

Although Sutirtha Mu­k­herjee and Karnam Spoorthy  have played in the cadet cha­m­pionship, we expect a good performance,” said Mukherj­ee. India will pin hopes on Ma­nika who has the capability to pull out a strong performance.