Sharath-Saha pair bows out in quarters

Macau, February 28, 2012: Achanta Sharath Kamal and Subhajit Saha, who toppled the second-seeded Chinese pair yesterday failed to show the same intensity and verve against Chu Yan Leung and Yuk Cheung of Hong Kong in the quarterfinals of the Asian Table Tennis Championships and bowed out losing 0-3 here this afternoon.

Earlier, they had beaten the local pair of Kin Wa Leong and Chi Pan Che 9-11, 11-8, 12-14, 11-2, 11-8 to move into the quarterfinals, giving some hope for the Indian camp.

But not only did the other Indian pair of A. Amalraj and Sanil Shetty lose 2-3 to the Chinese duo of Ma Long and Wang Hao in the pre-quarterfinals, but also in both sections of the singles events the Indian paddlers failed to make much of a progress.

Hong Kong’s Chu Yan and Yuk Cheung proved to be too hot a pair for both Sharath and Saha as it disposed of the Indians 11-5, 11-8, 11-6 in less than 40 minutes. The Indians, who met the Macau duo in the pre-quarterfinals, played totally contrasting match and the spark was visible when they wore out their opponents to win 3-2.

In fact, both Sharath and Saha complimented each other in their match against Macau and attacked when needed and slowed down when the opposition was strong. This ploy, somehow, could not be employed against Hong Kong players who never switched off from the first point they took against the Indian duo.

   

In men’s singles Amalraj lasted just two round but lost in the third round to Chu Yan Leong of Hong Kong 6-11, 5-11, 6-11, 4-11, while Soumyajit Ghosh bowed out in the first round to Zi Yang of Singapore 4-1. Another Singaporean Ning Gao accounted for Sharath Kamal in the third round when he beat the Indian 4-3 (8-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-3, 11-9, 11-6, 11-6.

Sharath had the measure of Gao when he was up two games and against led 3-2, but his opponent of the hook to lose the next two games. The similarity did not end there as Subhajit Saha also lost to Singapore’s Peng Tang 4-2 (9-11, 9-11, 11-7,11-7, 10-12, 10-12) in a gurelling third round fight.

Among the women, Mousumi Paul gave a semblance of fight to progress but she lost to Cheng I-Ching 1-4 in the fourth round. Earlier, Mousumi had beaten Iran’s Neda Sahasavari 4-3 (11-8, 2-11, 11-5, 4-11, 11-4, 9-11, 14-12). Ankita Das too lost in the fourth round to Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa 4-0, Poulomi Ghatak in second round to Thai girl Nanthana Komwong 4-0, K. Shamini following her in third round when she lost to South Korean Eun Hee Lee 4-0 to complete the Indian rout.

With women’s doubles starting on Wednesday, there is still some Indian interests left in the championships.

A TTFI Press release