Pattaya (Thailand), Oct 1 (IANS) India’s engagement in the singles and doubles events at the Asian Table Tennis Championships came to an end on Thursday as the men and women paddlers bowed out after putting up some exciting performances here.
Veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal, Soumyajit Ghosh and G. Sathiyan had exited after reaching the round of 32 in the men’s singles, while Harmeet Desai and Sanil Shetty could not last out beyond the round of 64.
Ghosh was the first to be sent packing when Chinese Fang Bo beat him in straight games of 11-9, 11-5, 11-5, 11-6. Sharath followed him in the round of 32 when he lost to Hong Kong’s Won Chun Ting 8-11, 11-5, 7-11, 5-11, 4-11 and thereafter Sathiyan as Japanese Yuya Oshima won 11-7, 11-8, 11-6, 11-13, 11-6
In the earlier round, Ghosh beat Thailand’s Chanakam Udomsilp 4-0, Sharath downed Qatar’s Fahed Almughanne 13-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-5, 8-11, 11-4 with a bit of struggle and Sathiyan defeated Ashraf Muhamad Haiqal 4-1 (11-6,13-11,11-3,7-11,11-3) in his second encounter against the Malaysian.
However, Sanil Shetty went down 1-11, 10-12, 9-11, 9-11 to Hong Kong’s Ho Kwan Kit and South Korean Kim Minhyeok accounted for Harmeet Desai 6-11, 11-8, 8-11, 12-10, 11-6, 11-2 in a tough duel in the round of 64.
There was a glimmer of hope for the Indian men’s doubles pair of Ghosh and Desai when they received a walkover from Ma Long and Zhang Jike in the pre-quarterfinals after the top Chinese pair pulled out. But in the quarter-finals, the Indian duo found it tough against the Japanese pair of Masataka Morizono and Yuya Oshima as the latter won 3-1 (11-3, 11-5, 10-12, 12-10) to stop Indian progress.
They had earlier beaten the Myanmar’s Hein Zin Min and San Kyaw 11-0, 11-4, 11-9 in the first round and then defeated Saudi pair of Ali Alkhadrawi and Bu Shulaybi 12-10, 11-5, 10-12, 11-5. The Saudi juniors had reasonably well at the India Open in Indore to stop the Indians from a complete sweep of medals, just a week before the Pattaya championships.
The other Indian pair of Sathiyan and Shetty failed to cross the pre-quarterfinal hurdle as they could not sustain the 0-3 (11-8, 14-12, 11-3) onslaught by Japan’s Koki Niwa and Maharu Yoshimura. Earlier, the Indian beat Turkmenistan’s Rashid Ahmedov and Denis Kuzmenko 11-0, 11-0, 11-0 and followed it up with a win over another Saudi pair of Abdulaziz Al-Abbad and Naif Al-Jadai 13-11, 11-6, 11-7 to enter the pre-quarters.
Meanwhile, the women’s pair of Mouma Das and K. Shamini, despite getting a walkover from top Chinese pair of Ding Ning and Liu Shiwen in the round of 32, lost to the North Korean pair of Kim Song I and Ri Myong Sun 9-11, 5-11, 8-11 in the pre-quarterfinals. The Indians won their first round against the Kazakh pair of Kamila Mashanloeva and Elina Modubashova 3-0.
But both Manika Batra and Ankita Das, who got a first-round bye and won against Indonesia’s Lilis Indriani and Nilasari Ceria Jusma 3-1 in the next, went down to the South Koreans Lee Zion and Yang Haeun 2-11, 7-11, 3-11 to bring an end to the ordeal.
In the mixed doubles, the pair of Ghosh and Mouma had reached the round of 16 but lost to Japanese Misako Wakamiya and Yuva Oshima 4-11, 11-13, 4-11 after winning their earlier rounds 3-0 against two Kazakh pairs. First they beat Azamat Ergeshov and Elina Modubashova 11-7, 11-3, 11-9 and then blanked out Denis Zholudev and Yulia Gats 11-4, 11-8, 11-9.
The pair of Shetty and Manika beat Macau’s Ma Cho and Chang Hoi Wa 11-3, 11-6, 11-7 in the first round but failed against Singapore’s Yang Zi and Yu Mengyu as the latter won 11-9, 11-2, 11-5.
