Lucknow: Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal's
heroics went in vein as India went down to China 1-3 in the
quarterfinal to bow out of men's team event on the third day
of the 19th Asian Table Tennis Championships here today.
Sharath, world number 70, came up with brilliant efforts
to beat Wu Hao of China 3-2 in a marathon encounter when the
hosts were one-match down in the Champions Division match at
Uttar Pradesh Badminton Academy at Gomti Nagar.
After losing the first game 3-11 before a motley crowd,
the lanky Indian clawed his way back by snatching the second
game 12-10, but again lost the third one (7-11) to the
Chinese.
However, the Chennai boy capitalised on the home support
to prove his mettle and clinched next two games 11-8, 11-9
against Hao to round off the tally.
But none of his compatriots could match their Chinese
opponents and curtains were dropped on the hosts' challenge in
men's team event at the week-long prestigious event.
Soumyadeep Roy suffered a 0-3 humiliation at the hands of
Wang Liqin in the first encounter, while Ma Long blanked
Sourav Chakraborty with an identical scoreline in the third
tie.
Under pressure, Sharath also failed to maintain the
rhythm in his return clash against Liqin and lost 2-3 to allow
the Chinese settle the issue.
China then beat Hong Kong 3-1 en route to the final,
where they play Japan, who beat Chinese Taipei 3-2 in
semifinal, tomorrow.
Indian men, who went down 0-3 to Korea for third their
successive loss in the tournament in classification play-off,
will take on Singapore with an eye on seventh place finish.
Women's team event will see a summit clash between China
and Singapore tomorrow. China beat Korea 3-0, before Singapore
defeated Hong Kong 3-2 in semifinals.
Indian eves failed to qualify for the Champions Division.
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 23:17