Osi wins Glasgow Super Singles
Thato Kala | Monday July 28, 2014 17:37
On her way to the final, the former national team star, Osi, finished top of group one with Phemelo Gaborapelwe coming second to progress to the finals.
Osi had beaten Gaborapelwe, Africa Youth Games representative Olorato Ramagapu and Matlhogonolo Tirelo.
Raditloko topped group one when she dismissed Tumelo Raseatlholo, Namibo Mbulawa, Osego Batisani and Hertweg Kangootui.
Osi then thrashed Raseatlholo 3-0 iin one of the quickest matches of the tournamentwhile Raditloko accounted for Gaborapelwe to make the final.
Osi - the former national number two, went in as a favourite in the final but two early blunders saw her trail 2-0 barely a minute into the first game, but she quickly levelled terms with her experience coming into hand.
Raditloko proved equally strong as she challenged her more experienced opponent. She won the first game 11-9.
It was a better start for Osi in the second game as she took a quick 2-0 lead.
But successive lapses of concentration saw her opponent claw back into the game.
Midway through the game they were tied at 5-5.
But a strong finish by Osi saw her take a 10-6 lead and eventually win the game 11-8 to level scores.
She also started the third game strongly and quickly shot to a 4-0 lead with little resistance from her opponent. She was more aggressive in this game and a defensive Raditloko struggled to contain her.
At 10-6 she needed a single point to wrap up this game and she did when her opponent slipped up.
The score was 2-1 in favour of Osi and she needed to win two more games to wrap it up but her opponent won it to make it 2-2.
Osi quickly led 10-4 in the fifth game and wrapped it up in style to make it 3-2.
A win in the next game would wrap it up and she showed determination early into the game and she won it 11-4.
“It was a difficult game because she is more of a defensive and I am more of an aggressive player, but I am happy I managed to win it in the end,” Osi said.
Raditloko felt she blundered by being too defensive in the last five games of the match.
“I went wrong by not attacking, I was too defensive and she took advantage of that. I started off well, I was a bit relaxed, but I lost track during the game and I lost points in the process,” Raditloko told Monitor Sport.
The two players hailed the tournament that was sponsored by individuals to the tune of P3,000. The money was used to reward winners and runners up. The runners up in both men and women walked away with P500.
Raditloko said: “It is a good initiative, bringing the table tennis family together for a good cause.”
Osi added: “We hope the second one will be bigger and better. We hope the returns we got here will be used to appreciate players who won medals in the SA Open recently.”
In the men’s final, Kennete ‘Kent’ Santudu beat Kent beat Boykie Selerio 4-1 in another exciting match.
Santudu had beaten Kgalemo Kganelo 3-0 to book a berth in the final while Selerio dismissed Tiro 3-1.
The tournament was poorly attended with a total of 21 men and nine female players taking part.