Indian men lose to Bulgaria 1-3 in last league match in World TT

Bremen, Germany, Apr 28 (UNI) Commonwealth Games gold medallist Achanta Sharath Kamal's early fightback was the only saving grace as Indian men lost their last league match 1-3 to Bulgaria in the division II of the world team table tennis championship here today.

India had already entered the pre-quarterfinals, with eight points to their credit from three wins and two losses, behind Singapore (10) and Bulgaria (9).

Continuing his fine run in the tournament, Sharath Kamal thrashed Konstantin Parapanov 3-0 to level the tie 1-1, after Soumyadeep Roy went down tamely to world number 50 Zhe Feng in the first match.

Shubhajit Saha then raised hopes of an Indian win, but lost a closely-fought five-game match to Kessov Todor.

Still looking for a fightback, Sharath Kamal, however, failed to raise to the occasion in the fourth match losing the higher ranked Zhe Feng.

Result: Feng Zhe (BUL) bt Soumyadeep Roy 11-5, 11-6, 11-3 Sharath Kamal bt Konstantin Parapanov 11-3 11-5 11-8 Kessov Todar bt Subhajit Saha 7-11, 12-10, 11-8, 8-11, 11-5 Feng Zhe bt Sharath Kamal 11-2, 11-3, 11-8 UNI XC PDS DH BD1810