Indian men taste first defeat, women slump to third loss in World TT

Bremen, Germany, Apr 26 (UNI) Indian paddlers had a forgettable day today with both men and women losing their third round ties at the World Team Table Tennis championship here.

While women slumped to their third successive defeat in the competition, surrendering to Serbia 0-3, men tasted their first defeat, going down fighting to higher-ranked Singapore 2-3.

India, seeded 14th in the division II men's competition, were leading 2-1 at the end of the third rubber, after Commonwealth Games hero Achanta Sharath Kamal gave them 1-0 lead beating Cai Xiao Li and Subhajit Saha got the better of Lee Tien Hoe Clarence, though Soumyadeep Roy was thrashed by Yang Zi in the second rubber.

But, Kamal could not finish off the tie in the fourth rubber and went down to Xiao Li in four games. The deciding rubber went in favour of sixth seeded Singaporeans with Xiao Li having little difficulty in overcoming the challenge of Soumyadeep in four games.

Indian men play Finland in the next round tomorrow.

In the women's championship division, the submisssion of the bottom-ranked Indians was complete as they could win only one game in the tie, with national champion Mouma Das taking the second game against Silvija Erdelji in the first rubber.

Olympian Poulomi Ghatak and Kasturi Chakravarthy, who took the field for the first time in the tournament, were no match for their opponents and lost their matches in straight sets.

Results: Men Division II: India lost to Singapore 2-3 Sharath Kamal bt Cai Xiao Li 4-11, 13-11, 15-13, 11-9 Yang Zi bt Soumyadeep Roy 11-9, 11-8, 11-2 Subhajit Saha bt Lee Tien Hoe Clarence 11-2, 11-7, 11-4 Yang Zi bt Sharath Kamal 11-7, 8-11, 11-8, 11-6 Cai Xiao Li bt Soumyadeep Roy 11-5, 12-14, 11-7, 11-8 Women Championship Division: India lost to Serbia 0-3 Silvija Erdelji bt Mouma Das 11-8, 7-11, 11-7, 11-6 plavsic Gordana bt Poulomi Ghatak 11-9, 11-2, 11-5 Ana-Maria Erdelji by Kasturi Chakravarthy 11-7, 11-4, 11-8 UNI XC PDS RK1706