New Delhi, July 20: It was not a cakewalk for the Indian paddlers in both the boys and girls sections of the 17th NCC Junior Asian Championships at the Thyagraj Stadium.

Fortunately for the Indian boys, they had just one match to play in the morning against Thailand whom they beat 3-0, after having drawn in Group A which has five teams.

But the junior girls had to endure the strain of having to play three matches and it reflected in their game plan. Though they beat Kazakhstan 3-1, they went down to Hong Kong 3-2 in the second match. And in the last match of the day, they expectedly beat Qatar 3-0 to almost seal a place in the second stage.

The boys made a winning start with Soumyajit Ghosh beating Peerapol Kunprasert 11-8, 11-8, 11-6 in quick time. However, Harmeet Desai was not so lucky. The world No. 36 was stretched the full distance by Tanapol Santiwattanatarn before the Indian overcame with 5-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-6, 11-8 verdict. Luckily, Desai held his nerve at crucial times to win over the Thai, who is ranked 185. Sourav Saha eased into nice rhythm to beat Rachalak Chanpongsang 11-4, 11-6, 11-1 to give the hosts something to cheer about.

Desai, who recently won the US Open and Austrian Open, was rusty to begin with as the Thai caught him on the wrong foot in the first game. But he picked up nicely in the second only to give away the advantage to his opponent. Desai, who had by now sized up the Thai well, did not waste any time and wrapped up the next two games to give India a 2-0 lead.

The girls’ team was expected to win against a lowly Kazakhstan, but the latter showed some grit in taking a match off the Indian paddlers. Monika Batra had it easy against Yuliya Gats, winning 11-7, 3-11, 11-5, 11-8. But the experiences Mallika Bhandarkar could not cope with the pace of Ananstasiya Lavrova and lost 5-11, 11-9, 11-5, 8-11, 7-11 in a grueling fight that lasted 45 minutes.

Then Reeth Rishya Tennison defeated Gulnoza Ermatova 11-4, 12-14, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9 after a bit of struggle. Then Mallika brushed aside her earlier loss to beat Yuliya Gats 11-6, 11-6, 7-11, 10-12, 11-9. The match could have gone either way but the experience of Mallika prevailed over the Kazakh girl.

In cadet boys section, India toppled Japan, seeded second here, 3-1. Abhishek Yadav failed to give a winning start as he lost to Masato Kakitsuka. But Utkarsh Gupta won his singles against Tonin Ryuzaki and thereafter the Indian duo combined to beat the Japanese pair of Masato and Tomo Miyazaki. Later, Yadav made amends with a comfortable victory against Ryuzaki in reverse singles. The cadet girls also beat Qatar 3-0.

As for the other participants, all top visiting teams scored easy wins against their weak opponents.