Discussions in sport often centre around what might have been.
“If”, the smallest word, is the biggest.
So if Sharath Kamal Achanta, having established a two matches to nil lead against Wang Liqin in the quarter-final of the Men’s Team event at the Asian Championships when India met China on Wednesday 18th November 2009, had progressed to win, the fixture would have gone the full distance.
The intriguing “if” is that in the final duel Soumyadeep Roy would have faced Wu Hao to decide the outcome. Would India have beaten China “if” Sharath Kamal Achanta had beaten Wang Liqin?
Never Happened Now Soumyadeep Roy has a reputation for being good under pressure and Wu Hao is on duty in his first ever senior appearance for China.
Wang Liqin recovered to beat Sharath Kamal Achanta, so the Soumyadeep Roy versus Wu Hao match never materialised but what if it had happened?
Well on Friday 20th November 2009 in the second round of the Men’s Singles event at the Asian Championships in Lucknow, that very match materialised.
Different Scenario Accepted it was a different scenario but Wu Hao was under pressure having lost to Sharath Kamal Achanta in the Men’s Team event and being a young player, he is trying to gain a place in the men’s team.
It is hard enough to do that in any country in the world but to do it in China is a monumental task. China won the Men’s and Women’s Team titles in Lucknow without fielding any player who had brought both teams gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games!
Response So Wu Hao was under a degree of pressure against Soumyadeep Roy but he gave us a clear illustration of what might have been had they met in the Men’s Team event.
He beat Soumyadeep Roy in four straight games to book his place in round two of the Men’s Singles event; he was simply too fast, too good near the net and clearly had a point to prove.
Leading Players Succeed Success for Wu Hao in the second round of the Men’s Singles event and there was also for the leading players in both the Men’s Singles and Women’s Singles competitions.
China’s Ma Long and Wang Liqin came through successfully as did Hong Kong’s Cheung Yuk and Japan’s Jun Mizutani in the Men’s Singles event whilst in the counterpart Women’s Singles event China’s Li Xiaoxia and Liu Shiwen experienced no travails as similarly did Singapore’s Feng Tianwei and Korea’s Kim Kyung Ah
Close Matches Closest matches of the second round involved Chinese Taipei’s Huang Sheng-Sheng against Iran’s Noshad Alamiyan in the Men’s Singles event with the former winning in seven games whilst in the Women’s Singles competition, Chinese Taipei’s Li Chi-Huei recovered from a two games to nil deficit to record a seven games win over Thailand’s Anisara Muangsuk.
