Indian men's team suffers defeat, virtually out of contention

Doha, Nov 29 (UNI) Achanta Sharath Kamal's heroics notwithstanding, Indian men's team started their campaign on a disastrous note losing 1-3 to Japan in the Group 'A' league match of the Table Tennis competition in the Asian Games here today.

With this defeat, India's chances of making it to the knock out stage have become bleak as they face formidable China in their next tie.

Yemen is the fourth team in the group. Top two teams from a group will make it to the knock out stage.

Commonwealth gold medallist Sharath Kamal gave India a rousing start when he downed Yo Kan in a four game thriller which lasted over 25 minutes.

Kamal surprisingly took time to settle down and Yo took advantage of the situation to clinch the first game. However, the Indian rallied back strongly to win the next three games.

The 24-year old Kamal then gave no quarter to Yo as he left his opponent bewildered with a flurry of strokes and repeatedly beat the Japanese with strong forehand shots.

The Indian emerged winner 12-14, 13-11, 11-9, 11-6 to give his side a 1-0 lead.

But, the two other Indians Subhajit Saha and Soumyadeep Roy could not emulate Kamal's good show and tamely lost their matches thus surrendering the lead to the rivals.

Subhajit lost to Jun Mizutani 4-11, 9-11, 10-12 in a one-sided tie in which the Japanese relaxed his grip only in the later stages of the third game.

Jun was too swift and agile near the table. His shots left Subhajit stranded and the match ended without much ado.

Soumyadeep Saha was no better and threw in the towel without much fight as his rival Kaii Yoshida romped home in style 11-6, 11-9, 11-6 in the 15-minute match Roy was never in contention and always trailed. Yoshida showed no mercy on his rival and smashed his way to victory to give Japan 2-1 lead.

In the crucial fourth match, Sharath Kamal and Jun Mizutani battled it out neck and neck, exchanging leads before the Japanese showing better staying power and nerves to beat the Indian in a marathon five game tie to give his side an invincible 3-1 lead.

Mizutani won 11-7, 8-11, 11-6, 5-11, 11-5.

After the match, Kamal said, ''I had my chances but Mizutani played better.'' Mizutani, however, said he was not too worried when he lost his second game 8-11 because ''I knew even if I lost my match, Ken would 100 percent to be able to defeat his opponent in his match (fifth match)''.

He said he had a good feeling throughout the match and played a motivated game.

Yo Kan, who lost the first match to Kamal, said, ''It was the first time I had played against Achanta. I had no idea who he was, so I was not prepared. I guess my reaction time was a bit slow and I was playing too conservatively and I was not decisive.'' UNI HSB PDS RN1856