Neha Aggarwal and Soumi Mondal were beaten in the semi-finals in straight games, leaving it to two Singaporeans to decide the top two medals in the girls' singles of the table tennis competition of the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune on Thursday.
An off-colour Neha, whose Olympic campaign at Beijing earlier this year lasted just 34 minutes, failed to find her footing in the match and was beaten by Isabelle Li 5-11, 6-11, 6-11, 9-11 in just 28 minutes, while Soumi Mondal was victim of another Singaporean, Kai Xin Zena Sim, losing 14-16, 10-12, 4-11, 4-11.
The 18-year-old Neha, who won the gold medal in the doubles event with Soumi Mondal on Wednesday night, trailed the Singapore girl right through though she did get a chance in the fourth game but squandered it.
In the last game, Neha had a handsome lead at 6-2, but Isabelle made a stunning fightback and levelled scores at 6-6.
From there on the lead changed hands till 9-9, after which the Singaporean grabbed two important points to surge ahead and book a place in the final.
Meanwhile, Soumi was stunned by the firepower that Kai Xin exhibited from the start of the match. The Indian still made a strong effort but it was still not enough to thwart her opponent.
Soumi fought hard in the first two games, which she lost 14-16, 10-12, but after that ran out of steam.
Both the Indian paddlers, however, will now fight it out between themselves to decide the bronze medal.
On Wednesday night, Neha and Soumi clinched the gold medal in the girls' doubles, while Soumyajit Ghosh and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran won the corresponding gold for boys.
Neha and Soumi had their backs to the wall but the two made a thrilling come back to overpower Divya and Pooja 7-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-9 in a nerve-wrecking match.
Soumyajit and Sathiyan, however, did not find the going that tough as they beat another Indian duo -- Raj Mondal and Shubham Sharma 11-4, 11-5, 11-8.
