India’s engagement in the singles and doubles events at the Asian Table Tennis Championships came to an end on Thursday 1 October 2015 as the men and women paddlers bowed out after putting up some exciting performances at the championship. Veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal, Soumyajit Ghosh, and G Sathiyan 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.
Men – Singles:
Ghosh was the first to be sent packing when Chinese Fang Bo beat him in straight games of 11-9, 11-5, 11-5, and 11-6. Earlier, Ghosh defeated Thailand’s Chanakam Udomsilp 4-0 in the round of 64. Sharath Kamal who had downed Qatar’s Fahed Almughanne 13-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-5, 8-11, 11-4 with a bit of struggle was next to lost to Hong Kong’s Won Chun Ting 8-11, 11-5, 7-11, 5-11, 4-11. Finally, it was Sathiyan who won against Ashraf Muhamad Haiqal 4-1 (11-6,13-11,11-3,7-11,11-3) in his second encounter, lost against the Malaysian lost to Japanese Yuya Oshima 7-11, 8-11, 11-6, 13-11, 6-11.
Sanil Shetty went down 1-11, 10-12, 9-11 and 9-11 to Hong Kong’s Ho Kwan Kit and South Korean Kim Minhyeok defeated Harmeet Desai 6-11, 11-8, 8-11, 12-10, 11-6, 11-2 in a tough duel in the round of 64.
Men- Doubles: Indian men’s doubles pair of Ghosh and Desai received a walkover from Ma Long and Zhang Jike in the pre-quarter-finals , but in the quarter-finals, the Indian duo found it tough against the Japanese pair of Masataka Morizono and Yuya Oshima and lost 1- 3 (3-11, 5-11, 12-10, 10-12) to halt Indian progress.
Women – Doubles:
The women’s pair of Mouma Das and K. Shamini, after 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. Another Indian pair of Manika Batra and Ankita Das, who had got a first-round bye and won against Indonesia’s Lilis Indriani and Nilasari Ceria Jusma 3-1 in the earlier round, went down to South Koreans Lee Zion and Yang Haeun 2-11, 7-11, 3-11 to bring an end .
Mixed Doubles:
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. In the earlier rounds, they had won 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.