Sharath Kamal need to get past Ning Gao 'hurdle' to defend his title

Jaipur, June 4 (UNI) Defending champion Achanta Sharath Kamal trounced Xiao Li Cai (Singapore) 4-1 to enter the semi-finals of the men's singles event in the 17th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship at the SMS Indoor Stadium here today.

In a one-sided encounter, the Commonwealth Games gold medalist outplayed Li Cai 11-9, 10-12, 11-3, 11-7, 11-4 to go one stop closer to the title.

Sharath Kamal was in rhythm right from the start of the match and displayed a dominating performance against the fifth seed Singapore lad. He won the first set 11-9 but lost the second 10-12.

However, Sharath was unstoppable in the third and fourth set as he pocketed them 11-7, 11-4 and comfortably made his way into the semi-finals.

It will be totally different ball game for Sharath in the semi-finals tomorrow as he will be up against top seed Ning Gao of Singapore, who thrashed New Zealand's Zhilong Brad Chen 11-9, 11-6, 11-7, 12-10 in the other quarter-final.

Sharath, who is placed at 94th position in the world ranking, will have his task cut out in the semi-final tomorrow. The Indian number one paddler will have to produce his best performance against world ranked 25th Ning Gao if he intends to defend his title here.

In the other quarter-finals, eleventh seed Kazeem Nosiru of Nigeria stole the limelight when he stunned third seed William Henzell of Australia 12-10, 11-6, 11-9, 11-9, while second seed Zi Yang of Singapore displayed great determination to beat tenth seed Gavin Rumgay of Scotland 10-12, 8-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-2, 9-11, 11-2.

Meanwhile, in the women's doubles event, the duo of Sushmita Roy and Vishaka Vijay stormed into semi-finals, while the other two Indian pairs of Jaykumar Swarna and M Aparna and Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das were ousted from the competition.

In the quarter-finals Roy and Vijay defeated Nigerian pair of Offiong Edem and Cecillia Out Offiong 6-11, 12-10 , 11-5, 7-11, 11-9, while Swarna and Aparna were defeated by Yue Gu Wang and Bei Bei Sun (Singapore) 11-13, 4-11, 11-7, 7-11 and the duo of Poulomi and Mouma lost at the hands of Malaysian pair of Lee Wei Beh and Sock Khim NG 9-11, 11-7, 3-11, 8-11.

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