New Delhi, Sept 7: Seventh-seed Payas Jain failed to turn his Cadet Boys singles silver into a gold medal when he went down to top-seed and World No. 1 (U-15) Yuanyu Chen 0-4 and settled for the second position on the podium in the 25th Asian Junior and Cadet Championships at Ulaanbaatar today.
Jain did show his aggression initially but, in the face of a fine attacking play by the Chinese, the Delhi paddler wilted and lost 11-13, 6-11, 8-11, 5-11 in less than 20 minutes. There was a time in the first game when Jain matched his Chinese rival and even deuced after trailing. But the top-seed converted the point at the second opportunity to go ahead.
After that, it was a one-way traffic for Jain as his opponent shut his openings and even made most of Jain’s mistakes to cash in on when the former went for his favourite blocks. In fact, Chen went from strength to strength from the second game to wrap up the final in quick time.
Incidentally, Jain’s silver medal earned him a berth in the Asian squad which will participate in the World Cadet Challenge at Wladyslawowo (Poland) in October.
India’s campaign at the championships ended on a success note with two silver medals—one by the Junior Boys team and another by Jain.
