Neha makes cut; Sharath out

 Indian paddler Neha Aggarwal on Thursday entered the main draw of women’s singles competition in the China Open Super Series at Changchun, while Achanta Sharath Kamal failed to make the cut in the men’s section.

Despite going down fighting to Wing Nam NG (79) of Hong Kong 3-4 in the final qualification match, 23-year-old Neha sealed a spot among top-32 paddlers for the competition by finishing second in her group.

Neha (373), after losing her opening match to Japan’s Yui Hamamoto 2-4, had beaten Isabelle Siyun Li of Singapore 4-1 on Wednesday to brighten her chances of entering the main draw.

Other competitors in the group, Yui and Isabelle too finished with one win each but the Indian qualified by winning more number of games.

Neha will now take on world number 13 Viktoria Pavlovich of Belarus on Friday.
Meanwhile, ace Indian paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal faltered in his last qualification match, going down 1-4 to lower-ranked Li Ahmet of Turkey to finish second in the group.

Other Indians in the fray, Anthony Amalraj, Soumyajit Ghosh and Sanil Shetty too failed to progress while Harmeet Desai tested Kenta Matsudaira, world no 27 from Japan, in a full seven game encounter, following a close defeat against Sweden’s Hampus Nordberg on Wednesday.