Sharath Kamal, India's flag-bearer at Paris Olympics 2024, crashes out after Round of 64 defeat in table tennis

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Sharath Kamal, who was India's flag-bearer at the Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony, crashed out of the men's singles table tennis event after losing 2-4 (12-10, 9-11, 6-11, 7-11, 11-8, 10-12) to Slovenia's Deni Kozul.

The 24th seed Indian paddler, who made his fifth Olympics appearance, lost to his opponent ranked 86 places below him in the match that lasted 53 minutes. 40th ranked Sharath Kamal won a close-fought first game before losing three on the trot.

Earlier in the day, India’s top-ranked woman paddler Sreeja Akula entered the round of 32 with a clinical 4-0 win over Sweden’s Christina Kallberg.

Sreeja, who had created history by becoming the first Indian paddler to win a WTT Contender singles title, registered a 11-4, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8 victory in 30 minutes over the Sweden.

The Indian had little trouble bagging the first set but was stretched in the second, and her rival continued to do that in the next two sets as well.

In the third set, Sreeja and Kallberg went neck-to-neck till 7-5, but the Indian found her bearings just in time to pocket it. Sreeja made the early running in the fourth set, taking a 9-3 lead, but a few unforced errors and a couple of good smashes helped Kallberg narrow the lead to 9-7 and then to 10-8. But a powerful unanswered forehand to the right corner of the table propelled Sreeja to the next round.