Youth Olympic Games 2018: Indian paddler Archana Girish Kamath holds off determined opponent to enter semi-finals

Buenos Aires: Indian paddler Archana Girish Kamath had to use all her skills, energy and nerves to overcome Azerbaijan’s Ning Jing 4-3 and enter the semi-finals of the Youth Olympics. [caption id=“attachment_5353441” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Archana Girish Kamath. Twitter@ittfworld[/caption] She pulled off a 13-11, 8-11, 6-11, 11-3, 6-11, 12-10, 11-7 win in the quarter-finals on Tuesday. In the semifinals, she takes on China’s Yingsha Sun. A win against the Chinese will put her straight into the medal round, failing which the Indian will have a shot at the playoff for the bronze. After taking the extended first game, Archana was hit back by Ning Jing, a Chinese origin player from Azerbaijan, who went 2-1 up to mount pressure on the Indian. But Archana was up to the task and levelled 3-3 before dropping the next. At this junction, the 18-year-old had  to keep her nerves calm and approach the match with composure, adeptly erasing the deficit and in the decider, playing like a champion, she simply demolished her opponent. “It was a tough match and my opponent fought till the very end. So I am very happy that I could win. But credit should also go to her because she played really well,” said Archana.