The Indian challenge ended on Friday in the singles events of the 19th Asian Table Tennis Championships with the defeat of Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal and and Sourav Chakraborty in the third round.

The Indian women had bowed out in second round itself with Indian paddlers Shamini Kumaresan, Pooja Sahasrabhudhee, Mamta Prabhu, Poulomi Ghatak, Madhurika Phatkar, Divya Deshpande and Mouma Das all losing in one-sided battles.

Seasoned player Mizutani Jun of Japan blanked India’s top paddler Sharath Kamal. The other Indian in the race Sourav Chakraborty had to face a similar fate at the hands of Ko Lai Chak of Hong Kong.

However, Sharath and Sourav entered the men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals after outclassing the Malaysian pair of MS Ibramim and CK Beng 3-1. The pair of Soumyadeep Roy and Jubin Kumar got a walkover in the third round.

In the women’s doubles’ section, Mouma Das and Pulomi Ghatak beat Sri Lankan duo of B Ishara and WM Tharir 3-1 to advance into the pre-quarterfinal stage.

Earlier, the men’s singles second round, Sourav Chakraborty outclassed Pank Xuejie of Singapore 4-2. India's top ranked player Sharath Kamal got a walk-over in this round. The other Indians Anirban Nandy, Jubin Kumar, Soumyadeep Roy, Devesh Karia and Aman Balgi had to face defeat in their respective second round matches.

The Results:-

Men’s (3rd round): Ma Long (Chn) bt Niwa Koki (Jpn) 11-3, 11-6, 11-7, 7-11, 11-7; Cai Xiaoli (Sin) bt Chiang Peng-Lung (Tpe) 4-11, 13-11, 12-10, 11-6, 11-8; Matsudiara Kenta (Jpn) Jeoung Sangeun (Kor) 11-9, 12-10, 9-11, 11-7, 5-11, 8-11, 12-10; Xu Xin (Chn) bt Huang Shen-Shen (Tpe) 11-9, 11-5, 11-8, 11-5; Mizutani Jun (Jpn) bt Sharath Kamal 11-6, 11-9, 11-5, 11-4; Seo Hyun Deok (Kor) bt Yoshida Kaii (Jpn) 11-8, 11-9, 11-9, 12-10; Zhang Jike (Chn) bt Wu Chih-Chi (Tpe) 11-2, 11-9, 11-6, 13-11; Ko Lai Chak (Hkg) bt Sourav Chakraborty 11-2, 11-4, 11-5, 11-6; Wang Liqin (Chn) bt Sanguansin Phuchong (Tha) 11-3, 11-5, 11-9, 11-0).

... contd.