Padasak, Sutirtha bag Table Tennis titles

PANAJI: Kirill Gerassimenko perhaps would have liked his trip to India end in a better way, especially after the start he got in the form of a youth Olympic berth five days ago.
The Kazakh caused a major upset in the final of the Road to Nanjing series when he defeated tournament favourite Lam Siu Hang of Hong Kong on Monday.
On Friday, however, he failed to produce similar magic at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium, Bambolim, as he surrendered to No.1 seed Padasak Tanviriyavechakul of Thailand in the junior boys singles final of the Indian Junior and Cadet Open Championships.
In the junior girls section, India's Sutirtha Mukherjee stole the limelight, blanking Bengal statemate Ayhika Mukherjee 4-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-7, 11-7).
Kirill, the second seed of the tournament, opened strongly against Padasak and looked to be well poised to walk away with the match. He took an early 2-0 lead and was cruising towards the title when the Thai cut short his dreams, almost tiring him out with forehand rallies. Padasak won the match in the next four games (7-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-5, 11-2), giving Kirill no chance to stage a comeback.
"Kirill's backhand errors did him in. I know he is very strong in forehand shots, so the only way to stop him was to play my forehand shots to his backhand," said Padasak after the match.
Sutirtha, on the other hand, hardly resorted to any game plan to dismiss Ayhika. "I gel with her quite well when we practise back home. And each time I play her, I win. So, I didn't have to worry about the outcome. I knew I'd win," said the 18-year-old from Kolkata.
In the cadet boys and girls categories, it was an all-Singapore show. While Shao Feng Ethan ripped apart India's Manav Thakkar 3-0 (11-2, 11-6, 11-3) to bag the boy's title, Hui li Tay emerged the champion is the girl's section with an easy 3-1 (11-6, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6) win over India's Archana Kamath.
Results (finals): Junior Boys (singles): Padasak Tanviriyavechakul (THA) bt Kirill Gerassimenko (KAZ) 4-2 (7-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-5, 11-2). Junior Doubles: Kirill G/Padasak T (KAZ-THA) bt Utkarsh Gupta/Abhishek Yadav (IND) 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-3). Junior Girls (singles): Suthirtha Mukherjee (IND) bt Ayhika Mukherjee 4-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-7, 11-7). Junior Girls Doubles (final): Tamolwan K/An Qi Tang (THA-MAS) bt Hui li Tay/Yee Herng Hwee (SIN) 3-2 (11-9, 11-7, 4-11, 9-11, 11-5). Cadet Boys: (singles): Shao Feng Ethan (SIN) bt Manav Thakkar (IND) 3-0 (11-2, 11-6, 11-3). Cadet Boys Doubles: Shao Feng Ethan Poh/Lucan Tan (SIN) bt Akaash Nath/Manav Thakkar (IND) 3-1 (11-3, 11-9, 8-11, 14-11). Cadet Girls: Hui li Tay (SIN) bt Archana Kamath (IND) 3-1 (11-6, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6); Cadet Girls Doubles: Aishwarya Pathak/Abhinaya Ramesh bt Shruti Amrute/Archana Kamath 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 12-10).