Mumbai’s Mangal Saraf , the National Table Tennis Champion in the Veterans 60+ Women’s section has reached the last 16 stage at the World Veterans Table Tennis Championship being played at Las Vegas, USA. In the third round of the main draw Mangal defeated Onno Svea of Estonia 3-1. She will now take on Zhu Min Ming of USA in the pre quarter finals to be played on Saturday.
Mangal is the only hope in the women’s Singles section from India for the medals, as per the last reports received. In the Men’s section both Suhas Kulkarni and Prakash kelkar from Mumbai won their 2nd rounds in the main draw in the men’s 65+ and men’s 60+ section. Among others, who also progressed in the main draw are Dr. Ashok Kalambe who won his first two rounds in men’s 50+ section and Manohar from Hyderabad who won his 4 rounds in men’s 45+ section in main draw, thus raising India’s hopes for medal.
There was a major upset noticed in this championship, when Former World TT Champion Istvan Jonyer playing the World veterans Championship for the first time, could not qualify for the main draw.