Table Tennis: Cooke able to negate the power of Ng

ALAN COOKE saved three match points to squeeze into the final of the Commonwealth Championships here in India yesterday, writes James Leigh from Hyderabad.

The second seed from Derbyshire, who is trying to win back the men's singles title he took in 1989, went two games to one down against the seventh-seeded Canadian, Joe Ng, and was 16-19 down in the final game before surviving 29-27, 16-21, 22-24, 21-19, 25-23. Earlier in the day Cooke had won in straight games against the Indian, Kamlesh Mehta, while Ng had won in five games against the fourth-seeded Englishman, Chris Oldfield.

Cooke will meet the top- seeded title-holder, Johnny Huangin, in today's final. The world No 14 from Canada won the other semi-final against England's other hope, the third-seeded Matthew Syed, by 21-11, 22-20, 21-10.