The Hindu : Sport / Table Tennis : Indian challenge ends

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 25, 2007
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Sport - Table Tennis

Indian challenge ends

New Delhi: India's campaign in table tennis World championship lasted barely a day with the last remaining pair in fray — Achanta Sharath Kamal and Soumyadeep Roy — bowing out in the second round of doubles event. Sharath Kamal and Roy lost to the Serbian pair of Aleksandar Karakasevic and Grujic Slobodan 12-10 11-5 11-6 11-3.

It was a pathetic display from the Indian paddlers and apart from Soumyadeep and Sharath Kamal in doubles, nobody could progress beyond first round.

The performance of the men's team is particularly disappointing as they had a special training camp in Germany to prepare for the World championship and the upcoming Commonwealth championship in Jaipur.

While Sharath Kamal got a direct entry into the main draw, the other players' competition were limited to the qualifying stage of the prestigious event.

Sharath, the National champion, lost to Lucjan Blaszczyk of Poland 11-8, 11-6, 11-9, 11-9.

Firm against speed glue

Meanwhile the ITTF chief has decided to sweep speed glue off the table, once for all.

Solvent-based speed glue, which increases speed and spin but is hazardous to health, will be banned from September 1, 2007 if the federation's general meeting votes in favour of the ban.

"As an ITTF President, it's my responsibility to protect players ' health," said Adham Sharara on the third day of the world championships.

Water-based glue will replace speed glue, which has been widely used by offensive players in the past decade or more.

Other results (first round, featuring Indians only):

Men: Singles: Soumyadeep Roy lost to Christophe Legout 9-11, 3-11, 6-11, 12-10, 5-11; Subhajit Saha lost to Min Yang 8-11, 2-11, 12-10, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9, 7-11.

Women: Singles: Mouma Das lost to Irina Kotikhina 8-11, 4-11, 4-11, 7-11; Poulomi Ghatak lost to Eun Hee Lee 3-11, 4-11, 5-11, 9-11. Doubles: Mouma & Poulomi lost to Galia Dvorak & Sara Ramirez 6-11, 5-11, 9-11, 6-11.

Mixed doubles: Sharath & Poulomi lost to Xin Xu & Yan Guo 9-11, 13-11, 5-11, 6-11; Anirban Nandi & Kasturi Chakraborty lost to Bernhard Presslmayer & Qiangbing Li 3-11, 9-11, 4-11, 11-9, 8-11. — Agencies

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