Lucknow: Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal
suffered a 0-4 thrashing at the hands of higher rated Japanese
Mizutani Jun in the third round to bow out of the 19th Asian
Table Tennis Championships here today.
World number 70 Sharath, the hosts' best bet in the
prestigious event, struggled throughout his third round match
against the world number 11 on the fifth day of the
tournament.
Although the motley crowd present at the Uttar Pradesh
Badminton Academy hall cheered Sharath's every point, that
could not stop the the lanky Chennai lad losing the game 6-11,
9-11, 5-11, 6-11 in a lop-sided affair.
Sharath got a walk-over from Kim Song Guk of DPR Korea in
the previous round.
Compatriot Sourav Chakraborty, who rallied to eliminate
Pang Xuejie of Singapore 4-2 in second round, is now the lone
Indian hope in one-to-one category of the week-long
tournament.
Sourav takes on Ko Lai Chak of Hong Kong, who beat Md
Hanif of Bangladesh 4-0, in the third round.
Indian women also had a miserable day today as all seven
of them failing to cross second round hurdle in singles event.
National champion Kumaresan Shamini and experienced
Poulomi Ghatak came up with dismal performances.
Shamini surrendered 0-4 to world number 32 Yu Meng Yu of
Singapore and then former national champion Poulomi also
proved no match to Hyon Ryon Hui of DPR Korea with a 0-4
result.
The story was no different for the highest ranked Indian,
Mouma Das (192), who managed a wobbly performance to lose 1-4
to Kim Jong of DPR Korea.
Pooja Sahasrabudhe and Mamata Prabhu were spanked by
Cheng I-Ching of Chinese Taipei and Japanese Ai Fukuhara
respectively, with an identical 0-4 scoreline.
Madhurika Patkar fell to Lau Sui Fei of Hong Kong 1-4 and
youngster Divya Deshpande (0-4) found Yuka Ishigaki too tough
an opponent.
In other matches of men's singles event, Anirban Nandy
was drubbed 0-4 by Kim Hyok Bang of DPR Korea, Jubin Kumar
(0-4) was left clueless by world number 63 Yang Zi of
Singapore and Soumyadeep Roy (0-4) was thumped by Chinese Wu
Hao.
Devesh Karia lost 0-4 to Wu Chih-Chi of Chinese Taipei,
while world number 32 Kishikawa Seiya of Japan got the better
of Aman Balgu (1-4).
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, November 20, 2009, 21:36