PANAJI: High-profile tournaments and tough battles do a world of good to a player's confidence and Harmeet Desai was good-enough proof as he secured his place in the main draw of the WTT Star Contender in Goa.
On the opening day of the qualifiers, Harmeet saved two match points against Tom Jarvis to make it to the next round. And when he was up against higher-ranked opponents or players who he had never defeated before, the paddler simply rose to the occasion.
"It was very tough for me, all three games went down to the wire and I won 3-2," Harmeet told TOI after qualifying for the main draw at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium at Taleigao. "I am happy because all three guys were very tough, and I had lost to two of them previously. I am happy with the way I played, and I hope I can take my form into the main draw. "Harmeet was stretched to the limit by both his opponents on Tuesday. At first, the 29-year-old senior paddler from Surat put it across German world number 99 Fanbo Meng 11-5, 11-13, 11-9, 9-11, 9-11, and then returned to the stadium to defeat 84th-ranked Argentinean Horacio Cifuentes 11-7, 9-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-5.
"Having made it to the main draw, I am looking forward to playing more good matches. Such a tournament has never happened in India. Personally, I have been playing with the guys for a long time and to see them come to India is a big honour," said Harmeet.
The Arjuna Award winner is now up against the might of G Sathiyan, India's top-ranked player, in the opening round of the main draw on Wednesday.
Harmeet was not the only Indian who negotiated the tricky qualifiers to make it to the main draw. Two others- both women- also tasted success with teenager Yashaswini Ghorpade and Sutirtha Mukherjee giving a good account of themselves.
Yashaswini (196) was the first to book her spot. She defeated two Koreans along the way-first Cheonhui Joo (103) in round two and then Nayeong Kim (104). While it took her four games to edge past Joo 11-7, 11-6, 9-11, 11-8, Kim proved even tougher as the youngster prevailed 11-6, 1-11, 5-11, 11-5, 11-7.
It was smooth sailing for Sutirtha as she defeated Chinese Taipei's Li Yu-Jhun 11-9, 11-8, 11-6 and Korea's Eunhye Lee 11-9, 6-11, 11-6, 11-8 to make it to the round of 64.
Sutirtha meets Suhana Saini in the main draw, while Yashaswini will have to be at her best to sidestep world number 38 Miyu Nagasaki from Japan.
