Young Swastika Ghosh annexed a medal in the 2018 Hang Seng Hong Kong Junior and Cadet Open, claiming the bronze in the Junior Girls’ Doubles along with Singapore’s Jingyi Zhou.
The pair began on a high note, beating their Taipei opponents Pei-Ling Su and Yu-Chin Tsai in the round of 16. They won 3-1 to progress to the next round. Swastika starred in the quarters too, overcoming the Chinese duo of Binyue Zhang and Yi Chen with a similar score.
The combination of Li Lin Jassy Tan of Singapore and Ruei Ling Wen of Taipei, however, proved to be too strong for them in the semi-finals as they clinched the final game and won 3-2.
In the Junior boys’ doubles category, the combination of Raegan Alberquerque and Payas Jain got through to the pre-quarters but couldn’t continue their momentum as they lost to the Thai pair of Yanapong Panagitgun and Supakron Pankhaoyoy.
In the junior boys’ singles category, even though Raegan made it to the main draw, his journey was short-lived as he couldn’t get past local lad Pak Hei Cheng as he went down with a narrow 3-4 margin.
There were a few more who progressed to the main draw from the cadet boys’ singles category but only Payas Jain could progress further to the quarterfinals. However, he faced a staunch challenge from eventual finalist Hiroto Shinozuka of Japan and capitulated in front of the Japanese.
The cadet boys’ doubles roster saw another Indian Manoj Arnav Karnavar pair up with David Xu of Canada while there were two Indian duos of Manaav Mehta & Amit Jash Modi and Arush Dutt & Payas Jain contesting alongside them.
All three pairs progressed through to the pre-quarters on the virtue of a bye but couldn’t get past their respective opponents and bowed out of the tournament.
