Canada's Mo Zhang was the buzz in the Thyagraj Indoor stadium as she rode her luck to emerge a surprising winner in the women's singles category as Indians playing in various events failed to clear semis hurdle although settling for six bronze and overall a highest number of tally of nine medals finished on high for the hosts in the 19th Commonwealth Championships on Friday.
The Chinsese-born 24-year old first overcame India's Batra 4-3 in the semifinal with a scoreline of 11-9, 10-12, 12-10, 6-11, 11-7, 10-12, 11-6. In the first game, the 17-year old Indian was leading 6-0 before the Canadian staged a comeback to win it. All the matches were close but in the decider, Monika's inexperience showed in her show as she gave away a lot of easy points and in the end the match slipped away from her grab.
174-ranked Mo next faced 27th ranked Singaporean Mengyu Yu in the final and exhibited brilliance to win first three games with the single scoreline of 11-6. Mo, who for the time being wants to concentrate on studies and keen on finishing her two years of schooling, however fizzled away in the next three, losing 5-11, 10-11, 8-11.
Interestingly, Mo had shifted to Canada in 2002 and when she was 17-year old she quit schooling and moved away to Europe to concentrate on her game. After 2012 london Olympics, she had decided to study and now plays when she is free and this competition might be her last as she wants to go to university after couple of years.
Mo with a strong back-hand gave a lot of worries to Mengyu in the final game. Mengyu tried hard but ended of losing it 8-11.
"There was no pressure on me. I just stayed cool after going 3-3. But, I won in the final game," Mo said.
Bad day for Indians
Mouma Das who pitted against Mengyu lost 2-4 in women's singles (8-11, 15-17, 8-11, 5-11, 4-11) and while partnering with Shamini Mumaresan were routed 3-0 by Singapore pair of Mengyu and Feng Tianwei losing 6-11, 12-14, 2-11. Mengyu-Feng later went on to win the final.
Another women's doubles pair - Neha Aggarwal and Madhurikar was decimated by the English pair of Joana Parker and Kelly Sibley 3-1 (8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 9-11).
Kamal's agony
Although the upper-mentioned loss was not a huge surprise, what gave the agony was the men's doubles' defending champion pair — Achantha Sharath Kamal-Subhajit Saha's shocking 2-3 loss to England's Samuel Walker and Doran Christopher. The much-famed Indians were pairing up for the final time in the Commonwealth Championships and would have been a good farewell for the veterans.
However, the young and energetic English pair dashed their hopes. The Indians started with a vintage 11-4 victory. But the Walker-Christopher fought back to win of 4-11, 11-8, 6-11, 12-10, 11-7.
India's yearning for a bigger medal grew larger but Kamal made a lot of errors especially in his serves and ended on losing to Hu li 4-1 (10-12, 7-11, 13-11, 10-12, 4-11).
The singles' championship went in favour of 25th ranked Zhan Jian who defeated compatriot li 4-0. Overall, India won nine medals — two silver and seven bronzes.
"With nine medals, we are happy with our show. But, today was not our day. This performance will certainly will give a lot of confidence when we will play in World championships which starts from Monday," coach Bhawani Mukherjee said.