Indian women slump to 4th straight loss,men taste defeat in world TT

Bremen, Germany, Apr 26 (UNI) Indian women paddlers slumped to their four defeat on a trot and their male counterparts tasted first defeat on an unforgettable day at the World Team Table Tennis championship here today.

The winless women's team were thrashed 0-3 by Belarus in the fourth round tie of the championship division, Earlier in the day, they surrendered to Serbia on an identical 0-3 margin.

Veronika Pavlovich did not toil much to outclass national champion Mouma Das in straight games 11-4, 11-4, 11-6. In the second rubber, Olympian Poulomi Ghatak put up a semblance of a fight in the first game against Victoria Pavlovich, but ran out of steam in the next two games and lost the match in straight games.

Nandita Saha did not fare better than her two team mates and surrendered tamely to Tatyana Kostromina 4-11, 8-11, 7-11.

In the earlier tie against serbia also, the submission of the bottom-ranked Indian eves was complete as they could win only one game in the tie, with Mouma Das taking the second game against Silvija Erdelji in the first rubber, which the national champion eventually lost in four games.

Poulomi 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 games.

Indian women play their last group tie against title contenders China tomorrow.

In the men's division II section, India, seeded 14th, tasted their first defeat in the competition, going down fighting to higher-ranked Singapore 2-3.

Commonwealth Games hero Sharath Kamal failed to settle the issue in his team's favour, losing the fourth rubber against his Singaporean opponent Xiao Li after India were leading 2-1 in the best of five tie.

Kamal gave India 1-0 lead, beating Cai Xiao Li and Subhajit Saha got the better of Lee Tien Hoe Clarence to put India 2-1 ahead, though Soumyadeep Roy was thrashed by Yang Zi in the second rubber.

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.

Results: Women Championship Division: Fourth Round tie: India lost to Belarus 0-3 Veronika Pavlovich bt Mouma Das 11-4, 11-4, 11-6 Victoria Pavlovich by Poulomi Ghatak 12-10, 11-3, 11-6 Tatyana Kostronica bt Nandita Saha 11-4, 11-8, 11-7 Third Round tie: 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 Men Division II: Third Round tie: 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 UNI XC PDS BST 2127