Doubles delight for Sharath, but knocked out 1st round in singles

National champion A Sharath Kamal and Soumyadeep Roy upset the Austrian pair of Stefan Fegrel and Werner Schlager 11-4, 6-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-9...

National champion A Sharath Kamal and Soumyadeep Roy upset the Austrian pair of Stefan Fegrel and Werner Schlager 11-4, 6-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-9 to enter the second round of the World Table Tennis Championships in Zagreb, Croatia.

The duo8217;s win was the only highlight of an otherwise disappointing start made by the Indians in the main draw of the competition.

Sharath and Soumyadeep will now take on the Serbian duo of Aleksander Karakasevic and Slobodan Grujic in the second round.

8220;We have created an upset and it8217;s special because Schlager is a former world champion. He is currently ranked 11th in world,8221; an elated Soumyadeep said from Zagreb.

However, the Indian campaign in women8217;s doubles came to an end after national champion Mouma Das and Poulomi Ghatak surrendered 6-11, 5-11, 9-11, 6-11 to the Spanish pair of Galia Dvorak and Sara Ramirez in the first round.

Further disappointment for the Indians came in the mixed doubles event with Sharath and Poulomi Ghatak losing 9-11, 13-11, 5-11, 6-11 to the Chinese pair of Xin Xu and Yan Guo in the first round.

In another mixed match, Anirban Nandi and Kasturi Chakraborty were beaten 3-11, 9-11, 4-11, 11-9, 8-11 by Austria8217;s Bernhard Presslmayer and Qiangbing Li.

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The country8217;s players, though, cut a sorry figure in the singles event, with none of them managing to clear the first round.

India8217;s best bet in men8217;s singles Sharath Kamal came a cropper against Lucjan Blaszczyk as the Polish paddler swamped the Indian 11-8, 11-6, 11-9, 11-9. After losing the first two games, Sharath put up an improved show but that was not enough to stop Lucjan who coast to a straight game win.

Roy managed to snatch a game from Christophe Legout but that was all he could do as the French paddler went on to win it 11-9, 11-3, 11-6, 10-12, 11-5. In contrast, Subhajit Saha did not concede his match without a fight and Min Yang had to toil in the middle to get the better of the Indian 11-8, 11-2, 10-12, 8-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-7.

The women8217;s singles event also had setbacks as Poulumi suffered a rout and went down 3-11, 4-11, 5-11, 9-11 to Korean paddler Eun Hee Lee. Her partner Mouma8217;s singles show was no better as she lost to Russian Irina Kotikhina 8-11, 4-11, 4-11, 7-11 in the first round.