Table Tennis player Achantha Sharath Kamal kept Indian hopes alive. He marched into the second round of the men’s singles, while all his Indian teammates stooped out of individual events on Wednesday at the World Table Tennis Championships in Paris.
Sharath Kamal recorded a win by 11-7, 11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-9 over Carlos Machado of Spain in his first singles match and is supposed to play against World No. 5 Timo Boll of Germany in the second round. Anthony Amalraj and Soumyajit Ghosh already made an exit from the tournament. Ghosh lost his first round of battle against world No. 2 Ma Long of China by 11-8, 11-4, 11-3, 11-9. Amalraj lost to World No.22 Koki Niwa in straight sets of 5-11, 4-11, 8-11, 7-11.
In the women’s singles, all the qualifiers- K. Shamini, Mouma Das, Madhurika Patkar lost their respective opening matches of the main draw. Shamini was outwitted by Nikoleta Stefanova of Italy by 4-11, 5-11, 7-11, 9-11. On the other side, Madhurika took a game off her rival Wing Nam NG before descending to 8-11, 4-11, 8-11, 12-10, 3-11 triumph. Mouma Das who started with a bang was outclassed by World No. 37 Ho Ching Lee of Hong Kong by 7-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-6, 11-5.
In the mixed doubles side, the pair of Ghosh and Das encountered with Alexander Shibaev and Elena Troshneva of Russia. The Indians scored 16-14, 11-9, 11-8, 8-11, 11-8 to occupy a place in the last 32 stage keeping hopes alive. The duo will play against a strong pair from Hong Kong Peng Tang and Wing Nam NG.
Unfortunately, Sharath and Shamini were ousted by Patrick Franziska and Petrissa Slja of Germany by 0-4. In addition, the Japanese pair of Maharu Yoshimura and Kasumi Ishikawa got the better of Amalraj and Madhurika by 4-2.
