Asian TT C'ships: Indian men put up good show, women bow out in singles

New Delhi: All the Indian players expectedly entered the round of 128 in men's singles of the the Asian Table Tennis Championships at Pattaya, Thailand.

But it was curtains for all the female players who bowed out of the singles, including Mouma Das and Ankita who made the exit after entering the round of 32.

Sanil Shetty, Soumyajit Ghosh, Achanta Sharath Kamal and G Sathiyan had all made it a one-sided affairs against their opponents in the round of 128, but Harmeet Desai had to overcome a tough opponent in Laos' Thavisack Phathaphone 11-6, 11-5, 6-11, 8-11, 11-6.

Shetty beat Pakistan's Asm Qureshi 11-6, 11-2, 11-7, 11-9 and will next meet Kwan Kit Ho of Hong Kong in the next round.

Ghosh, who scored an easy 11-5, 11-4, 11-2, 11-2 win over Turkmenistan's Denis Kuzmenko, will face Chanakam Udomsilp from Thailand.

Sharath, who accounted for Oman's Said Al Qarani 11-4, 11-5, 11-3, 11-1, has his next opponent in Qatari Fahed Almughanne while G Sathiyan, who beat Salah Al-Balooshi 11-6, 11-4, 11-5, 11-3, takes on Muhamad Ashraf Haiqal from Malaysia.

Among women, Ankita Das and Mouma Das survived to enter round of 32, but both lost to their higher-ranked opponents, Japanese Mima Ito and Chinese Chen Meng, respectively.

The Japanese accounted for Ankita 4-2 (15-17, 11-5, 11-6, 11-6, 10-12, 11-3) in a keen battle where the Siliguri girl gave real torrid moments to her Japanese rival. But the experienced Ito proved too good in the end.

Chen made a mere formality against Mouma, despite the latter taking a game off her opponent, to win 11-6, 11-7, 5-11, 15-13, 11-5.

Ankita beat Iran's Mahjobech 11-7, 11-5, 11-8, 11-8 in the round o 64. Similarly, Mouma beat her first-round Vietnam opponent Thi Nga Nguyen in two extended points games, downed Iran s Neda Shahsavari 11-4, 6-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-4, 11-5.

The Iranian almost took the Indian to the brink, including winning the third game 12-10 to go 2-0 up, but Mouma's experience came in the way.

In contrast to the two, Manika Batra, K Shamini and Pooja Sahasrabudhe all exited in the round of 64 despite posting comfortable triumphs over their first-round opponents in the round of 128.