Disaster for Indians; Sharath, Subhajit, Mouma, Poulomi out

Zagreb, Croatia, May 23 (UNI) Disaster struck India's top paddlers as all of them crashed out of singles competition in Liebherr World Table Tennis Championship here today.

Sharath Kamal, Soumyadeep Roy and Subhajit Saha among men and Mouma Das, Poulomi Ghatak among women all lost their opening round matches.

Sharath Kamal bite the dust against Lucjan Blaszczyk of Poland 8-11, 6-11, 9-11, 9-11 while Roy lost to Christophe Legout of France 9-11, 3-11, 6-11, 12-10, 5-11.

However, Subhajit Saha fought a grim battle against Min Yang of Italy before going down 8-11, 2-11, 12-10, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9, 7-11 in a seven-set thriller.

In women's singles, Mouma and Poulomi were no match for their opponents. While Mouma was thrashed by Irian Kotikhina of Russia 8-11, 4-11, 4-11, 7-11, Poulomi got the drubbing at the hands of Lee Eun Hee of Korea 3-11, 4-11, 5-11, 9-11.

Mouma and Poulomi also lost their doubles first round match to Spanish duo of Galia Dvorak and Sara Ramirez 6-11, 5-11, 9-11, 6-11.

The only silver lining was provided by doubles pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Soumyadeep Roy who defeated Stefan Fegerl and Werner Schlager of Austria 11-4, 6-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-9 to sail into the next round.

UNI