G Sathiyan books World Cup spot finishing sixth in ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup
India’s ace paddler Sathiyan Gnanasekaran managed to get himself a berth in the World Cup after he finished sixth in the ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup in positions 5-8 match on Sunday. The Table Tennis World Cup, which is held annually since 1980, will be held in China’s Chengdu from October 18 to 20.
Despite stunning World No. 14 Chun Ting Wong from Hong Kong in the previous round, the Indian paddler wasn’t at his usual best. Coming up against an inexperienced 17-year-old Lin Yun-Ju of Chinese Taipei, Sathiyan was the obvious favourite. But, the 26-year-old went down 11-4, 11-8, 11-8, 14-12 to finish fifth in the positions match as Sathiyan finished sixth.
The sheer dominance that the Taiwanese showed against the experienced Indian has already got everyone talking. The world No. 21 has just won the Challenge Plus Oman Open title with critics already pegging him to be one of the future greats.
Lin started the match with his usual vigour and quick thinking and quickly took the first game 11-4 not allowing Sathiyan to settle. Though the Indian did manage some points in the second game, the left-handed paddler exploited the angles very well making it very difficult for the Indian to return at times.
The humiliating defeat looked to be prevented in the fourth game of the game when the India World No. 28 came extremely close to winning against Taipei's No. 2 paddler. However, all his experience couldn’t help as the teenager held his nerves to eventually emerge narrowly victorious at 14-12.