Sharath lone Indian singles hope at worlds

New Delhi, May 15, 2013: On a difficult day for India at the World Championships in Paris, Achanta Sharath Kamal proved to be the lone flag-bearer of the country when he defeated Spaniard Carlos Machado in first round of the men’s singles late tonight.

Except for the top-ranked Indian at 69, all other paddlers made exit and it included Soumyajit Ghosh, Athony Amalraj and all three women players—Mouma Das, K. Shamini and Madhurika Patkar.

Sharath defeated world No. 106 Spaniar 4-2 (11-7, 11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-9) to advance to the second round while Amalraj lost to a higher-ranked (22) Koki Niwa in straight sets of 5-11, 4-11, 8-11, 7-11. Ghosh too lost his first round battle against world No. 2 Ma Long as the Chinese proved too hot for the Indian. The Chinese won 11-8, 11-4, 11-3, 11-9.

The Indian challenge in the women’s singles came to an end as Shamini was outclassed by Italian Nikoleta Stefanova 4-11, 5-11, 7-11, 9-11 and before that Madhurika, though managed to take game off her opponent Wing Nam NG, the Hong Kong paddlers was too good on the day with 8-11, 4-11, 8-11, 12-10, 3-11 triumph. Mouma Das, who began promisingly, went down to another Hong Kong girl, Ho Ching Lee. The world No. 37 paddler outlasted her Indian rival with a 7-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-6, 11-5 victory.

There was some hope in the mixed doubles as the Soumyajit Ghosh- Mouma Das pair secured a spot in the round of 32 with a win over Russian duo of Alexander Shibaev and Elana Troshneva 16-14, 11-9, 11-8, 8-11, 11-8. But in the next round they will be running into Peng Tang and Wing Nam NG, a strong pair from Hong Kong.

But life was not easy for the other pairs—Sharath and Shamini and Amalraj and Madhurika. Sharath and Shamini were defeated by Germany’s Patrick Franziska and Petrissa Slja 4-0 and the Japanese duo of Maharu Yoshimura and Kasumi Ishikawa accounted for Amalraj and Madhurika 4-2.

TTFI Press release

Indian paddlers qualify for preliminary rounds

New Delhi, May 13, 2013: All Indian paddlers made an impression at the ongoing World Table Tennis Championships in Paris, crossing the first hurdles in the group stages and making it to the preliminary rounds in their respective singles today.

With Achinta Sharath Kamal being the lone Indian to get a direct entry into the main draw of the championships, the other players in both the sections had to slug it out in the qualifiers to make most of the occasion to not only top their groups, but also qualify for the preliminary rounds.

In the preliminary rounds, Sanil Shetty, who had an exceptional outing in the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships at home last week, defeated Jose Miguel Ramirez of Gautemala 4-1, to move ahead. He will next take on Egyptian Saleh Ahmed in the next outing. Earlier in a group match he was stretched full by Estonian Aleksander Lusin but the Indian was up to the task to overcome his European rival.

Harmeet Desai and Soumyajit Ghosh too made progress in the prelims with victories over Pablo Tabachnik of Argentina and Zokhid Kenjaev of Uzbekistan, respectively. While Desai beat his opponent in straight games, Ghosh won 6-11,13-11,8-11,11-6,11-5,11-8. Desai will meet Poland's Robert Floras and Ghosh will play Julian Indeherberg from Belgium.

On the distaff side, K Shamini, Mouma Das, Neha Aggarwal and Madhurika Patkar have completed their group engagements to qualify for the preliminaries. Both Shamini and Mouma received in the preliminary round, Neha went through the motions by defeating Gokec Nur Gungor of Turkey 11-3,11-9,3-11,12-10,11-6.

Group results:

Men: Soumyajit Ghosh bt Kin Wa Leong (Mac) 11-7, 14-12, 11-9, 12-10, Soumyajit Ghosh bt Anthony Corbin (Tri) 11-7, 11-5, 11-6, 11-7.

Harmeet Desai bt Herman Matam (CMR) 11-6, 13-11, 11-8, 15-13, Harmeet Desai bt Aissa Belkadi (Alg) 4-11, 11-9, 5-11, 10-12,11-9,11-7, 11-2.

Sanil Shetty bt Mahbub Billah (Ban) 11-5, 11-3, 11-8, 11-6, Sanil Shetty bt Aleksander Lusin (Est) 4-11, 11-9, 5-11, 10-12,11-9,11-7, 11-2  

Women:  Mouma Das w/o Amina Namaganda (Uga), Mouma Das bt Aziza Karieva (Tjk)  11-3, 11-2, 11-2, 11-5.

K.Sahmini bt Krystle (Bar) 11-1, 11-5, 11-2, 11-4, K.Shamini bt Ridhmi Karadanaarachchi (SL) 11-5, 11-4, 11-8, 11-1.

Madhurika Patkar Kaltham Alyassi (Brn) 11-1, 11-4, 11-3, 11-6,  Madhurika Patkar bt Ana Silva (Por) 11-7, 12-10, 12-10, 11-5.

A TTFI Press release