Table Tennis: Indian teenager Selena Selvakumar wins gold in Egypt tourney

India’s young paddler Selena Selvakumar put up an impressive show in the Junior Girls’ Team event to annex the 2017 Egypt Junior and Cadet Table-Tennis Open title in sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The 17-year-old Chennai girl teamed up with local duo of Riman Hesham and Waad Ibrahim to upset the top seeded Egypt A team 3-2.

She beat Sarah Abousetta 3-1 (11-8, 13-11, 11-13, 11-7) in the opening encounter and Marwa Alhodaby 3-1 (12-10, 4-11, 11-8, 11-9) in the fourth match to set up the victory. Her wins were particularly impressive as Egypt’s Waad Ibrahim and Riman Hesham had lost to the highly rated Marwa Alhodaby and Mariam Alhodaby to hand over the initiative to their opponents.

Selena, however, didn’t lose her cool and won the first game 12-10 against Marwa. That was enough to shift the momentum and she rode on it for a comfortable win. Waad Ibrahim post a victory, beating Sarah Abousetta 3-1 (3-11, 11-9, 11-3, 11-6).

Selena was equally impressive in the semifinals against the Egypt-Tunisia team. She overcame Egypt’s Eman Taha 3-1 (11-8, 11-3, 6-11, 11-7) in the second match and Tunisia’s Abir Haj Salah 3-1 (11-5, 12-14, 11-9, 11-6) in what proved to be the decider.