Sharath knocked out in third round

Indias top paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal proved no match to Japanese world No 11 Mizutani Jun and went down 4-0 in the third round...

Indias top paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal proved no match to Japanese world No 11 Mizutani Jun and went down 4-0 in the third round as Indias challenge in singles at the Asian Table Tennis Championships came to an end on Friday.

In the one-sided affair at the Uttar Pradesh Badminton Academy hall here,Jun toyed with Sharath,ranked 70th in the world,before chalking out an 11-6 11-9 11-5 11-6 victory in the best-of-seven match.

In another match,Sourav Chakraborty,who had staged a come-from-behind win in his earlier match,too lose by an identical margin (4-0) to Ko Lai Chak of Hong Kong in the third round.

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Earlier,Indian womens singles challenge ended in the second round with seven paddlers including national champion K Shamini and Poulomi Ghatak crashing out.

Hope floats in doubles

However,the home paddlers are still very much in the hunt in the doubles events,with the pair of Sharath and Sourav entering the mens pre-quarterfinals after beating Malaysians MS Ibrahim and CK Beng 3-1. They will take on Jiang Tianyi and Tang Peng of Hong Kong.

Compatriots Jubin and Roy got a walkover from Indonesian pair of Dian David and M Yon and will now take on the Chinese pair of Wang Liqin and Zhang Jike.

In womens doubles,Mouma Das and Poulomi Ghatak beat Sri Lankan pair of B Ishara and WM Tharir 3-1 to set up a pre-quarterfinal clash with Huajun Jiang and Ya Na tomorrow. Among others,Shamini Kumaresan/Madhurika Patkar and Divya Deshpande/Pooja Sahasrabudhe crashed out after losing to Koreans Han Song and Hyon Hui and Hong Kongs Lin Ling and Zhang Rui,respectively.