Indian TT pair go down meekly to the Dutch

Sydney: India capped their disastrous campaign on the opening day of the Olympics when their doubles pair of Chetan Baboor and Raman Subramanyan went down to Holland's Danny Heister and Trinko Keen 17-21, 14-21 in the preliminary league match of the table tennis doubles here.

The match lasted barely 20 minutes, with the Dutch pair winning the first game under nine minutes.

The Dutch duo started the game, and Indians showing grit took a 3-2 lead. However, the Europeans came back strongly to make it 5 all. After that Heister and Keen took 10 straight points, breaking five services of the Indians, to lead the game 15-5.

The Indians tried to halt the slide and managed to snatch three points off their rivals' service and then took four off their own serve to reduce the lead to 12-18. Baboor and Raman combined well to snatch four more points to make it 16-19.

The Dutch pair fought back and took two points off their rival's serve to clinch the game at 21-17.

The second game was virtually the repeat of the first with the Indians taking 3-2, 6-4, 8-7 lead. But once the opponents found the rhythm, they just swept the Indians off their feet.

Heister and Keen retained four points off their own serve making it 11-9 and increased the lead to 14-11, 18-12 and finally closed the game and match at 21-14.

Later, Raman and Baboor said the Dutch pair was far more experienced and the two had been playing together for long.

The Indians were found wanting, both with their serves and returns. They were wide off the table and failed to consolidate their lead especially in the second game, for which they paid the price.

UNI