Germany’s 19 year old Amelie Solja, not included in the national team for the recent Liebherr World Team Championships, endorsed the fact on Thursday 17th June 2010, that should one of the Moscow bronze medal winning quartet, suffer a loss of form, then she is ready to step into their shoes.
At the Indian Open, she completed her group stage matches in fine form by beating the host nation’s Madhurika Patkar in four straight games to finish the first phase of proceedings with an unblemished record.
On the opening day of action, she had defeated Madhurika Patkar’s colleague, also in straight games. World Rankings
Few problems for Amelie Solja in the group stage of matters Photo By: tabletennisphotos.com
The win over Madhurika Patkar was as the current world rankings predicted. Amelie Solja currently stands at no.121 on the women’s list with the 23 year old Indian at no.256.
However, Madhurika Patkar is increasingly becoming a formidable opponent and has just claim to being rated India’s most improved female player in the past year.
ITTF Pro Tour Performances
At the Indian Open in March 2009 she reached the semi-final stage of the Women’s Singles event, her best ever finish on the ITTF Pro Tour, whilst earlier this year at the Qatar Open in Doha, she led China’s Liu Shiwen by two games to one in their first round encounter before the world’s no.1 ranked female player recovered.
Madhurhika Patkar duly gained second place and with the top two players progressing to the main draw, she duly booked her place in the second stage.
Indian Successes
A place in the main draw for Madhurika Patkar and there were also places for her colleagues Pooja Sahasrabudhe, Shamini Kumaresan and Nandita Saha.
Pooja Sahasrabudhe beat Singapore’s Zena Sim to conclude her group stage matches in second place, whilst Shamini Kumaresan overcame compatriot Niveditha Arumbakkam to also clinch runners up spot.
On the opening day Nandita Saha had defeated team mate Kasturi Chakraborty in her opening match.
Koreans Outstanding
All three groups were won by Koreans, the respective group winners being Cho Ha La, Kim Mi Jeong and Kim Min Hee.
It was a successful excursion for the Koreans with players from that country finishing in first place in six of the eight groups.
Lee So Bong, Nam So Ri and Jin Dal Rae also concluded matters as group winners with Hwang Ji Na recording a nail-biting seven games victory over the host nation’s Ankita Das, to secure second place in her group behind Poland’s Kinga Stefanska.
Malaysia and Japan
Places in the main draw for players from Germany, India, Korea and Poland and also from Malaysia and Japan; Bee Lee Wei and Ng Sockm Khim from Malaysia both finished in second places in their groups as did Japan’s Megumi Okazaki.
