New Delhi, May 17 (PTI): Unseeded Japanese Fumiya Igarashi defeated third seed Manav Thakkar of India to emerge winner in the junior boys singles final of the 2017 Thailand Junior and Cadet Open, an ITTF Golden Series Junior Circuit event, in Bangkok.
India also had to satisfy with a silver medal in the Hopes Boys when Preyesh Suresh Raj went down to Iran s Amir Mohammad Samadi 2-3 in a tough final.
The Japanese beat the Indian 11-8, 6-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11- 5, who had beaten higher-rated adversaries in the semifinal and quarterfinal.
In the last eight, he beat Tai Ming-Wei, the No.4 seed 11-5, 11-8, 11-7, 11-8, then overcame Lin Hsin-Yang, the No.2 seed, in what proved to be his toughest contest of the whole tournament in which he emerged successful 11-9, 12-10, 8-11, 8-11, 5-11, 13-11, 11-8.
Manav had beaten Singapore s Gerald Yu Zong Jun, the No.13 seed 11-9, 11-6, 14-12, 11-4, in the quarterfinals and then went on to record his semi-final win over Seiya Nishimura (11-4, 11-4, 11-6, 11-8), also of Japan, who had toppled top- seed Yi-Hsin Feng from Taipei.
Like Manav, second seed Preyesh Suresh Raj of India had to be content with the silver medal when he went down to top- seeded Samadi in the hopes singles final. The Iranian won 11- 9, 8-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-2.
