World Junior TT Championships, Madrid 2008: Neha and Soumi fail to make an impact

Neha Aggarwal and Soumi Mondal represented the Indian challenge at the 2008 ITTF World Junior Championships (Dec 6-13) in Madrid. Both of them participated in the Girls’ Singles competition and as a team also participated in the Girls’ Doubles event. Along with Marcelo Aguirre of Paraguay, Neha also entered the Mixed Doubles’ event.

In the Singles event, Neha progressed till Round of 16 while Soumi lost in the Round of 32. The Singles Qualifications saw participation from 88 girls divided into 24 groups (8 teams of 3 and 16 teams of 4). Through a round robin format with best-of-5-games matches, 48 girls qualified for the main draw (2 from each group). Soumi Mondal topped her group of 4 by winning her 3 matches against Hayet Gara (TUN) (11-0, 11-3, 11-3), Cristina Hirici (ROU) (11-7, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7) and Paula Avalos (CHN) (11-3, 11-4, 11-3) to go through to the Main Draw. Neha Aggarwal qualified for the main draws by coming in second in her group of 4 with wins against Stephanie Loeuillette (FRA) (14-12, 11-8, 11-5) and Julia Wi (NZL) (11-1, 11-2, 11-5)
and a loss against Olga Baranova (RUS) (5-11, 11-7, 8-11, 6-11). In the Main Draw, the 16 group toppers got a bye into the Round of 32 while the remaining 32 vied for the other 16 slots. The winners in the main draw were decided in a knockout format with best-of-7-games matches. So while Soumi Mondal got a bye, Neha Aggarwal had to defeat Manca Fajmut (SVN) to enter the round of 32. Neha got her way past Manca 4-2 (9-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-7). In the round of 32, Soumi Mondal was unable to continue her winning streak and lost to Camelia Postoaca (ROU) 1-4 (4-11, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 10-12). In contrast, Neha Aggarwal scored a convincing 4-0 victory over Ekaterina Kolodyazhnaya (RUS) 11-9, 11-9, 11-4, 11-9 to advance into the Round of 16. Here, she was up against eventually lost 0-4 to Ayuka Tanioka (JPN) 5-11, 6-11, 7-11, 7-11.

In the Doubles event, the Indian pair of Neha and Soumi received a bye to progress directly to the Round of 32 where they lost a tight 5-game match to the Czech pair of Hana Matelova & Aneta Kucerova 2-3 (7-11, 6-11, 18-16, 11-5, 6-11). In the Mixed Doubles, the Marcelo Aguirre/Neha Aggarwal pair lost in the Round of 64 against Chin-Wen Yang (TPE)/Pao-Wen Tsui (TPE) 2-3 (11-5, 9-11, 8-11, 11-7, 7-11).