WTT Star Contender: Sharath Kamal loses in pre-quarters, Indian challenge ends

Doha [Qatar], March 10 (ANI): Paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal’s impressive run at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender came to an end after he suffered a 9-11, 8-11, 6-11 defeat at the hands of World No. 12 Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the men’s singles pre-quarterfinal match on Wednesday.
Sharath, who surprised World No. 16 Germany’s Patrick Franziska in his last match, started the game well and gave a tough fight to his relatively higher-ranked German opponent as the first two games of the match went neck and neck before the London Olympics bronze medalist turned the momentum in his favour.
The German further capitalised on the 2-0 lead and wrapped up the match to enter the quarter-finals.
With Sharath’s loss, India’s participation in the tournament also came to an end. Earlier, Gnanasekaran Sathiyan and Manika Batra had made second-round exits in their respective singles categories.
In the first qualifying round of men’s singles, Anthony Amalraj had suffered a 6-11, 11-9, 3-11, 7-11 defeat against Mizuki Oikawa of Japan while Harmeet Desai lost to Ukraine’s Yevhen Pryshchepa with 10-12, 9-11, 11-13, 9-11 scoreline.
While in the women’s singles qualifiers, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ahyika Mukherjee couldn’t progress into the third round. Sutirtha lost the hard-fought match 11-9, 11-6, 5-11, 9-11, 9-11 to Hayeong Kim of Korea, and Ayhika suffered a 5-11, 11-13, 7-11 loss against Irina Ciobanu of Romania. (ANI)