Indian paddlers' journey ends with Sharath's ouster

Jaipur, June 5 (UNI) Host India's challenge in 17th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship ended at a grim note as defending champion Achanta Sharath Kamal tamlely surrendered in the semi-finals here today against top seed Ning Gao of Singapore.

Apart from Sharath, the last fours also saw India's exit from both men and women's doubles event.

The Commonwealth Games gold medalist was no match against the world number 25th Ning Gao as the Singaporean faced no difficulty in disposing off Sharath Kamal 13-11, 12-10, 11-8, 11-7 to set up an all Singapore clash in the finals.

Accepting his defeat, a disappointing Sharath Kamal gave full marks to his highly-ranked opponent saying he could not implement the pre-match stretegy against his rival.

In the title contention, he will be up against team-mate Zi Yang, who easily prevailed over Kazeem Nosiru of Nigeria 11-8, 11-9, 11-8, 11-6.

Expectedly, Singapore showed their dominance in this edition of the tournament as the women's final is also an all Singapore affair with Yue Gu Wang taking on her team-mate Bei Bei Sun.

Both the semi-finals in the women's section was keenly contested, as both top seed Yue Gu Wang of Singapore and Bei Bei Sun of Malaysia had to toil seven sets to book their berth in the final.

While Wang defeated fifth seed Lee Wei Beh of Malaysia 6-11, 10-12, 13-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-5, second seed Bei Bei Sun prevailed over third seed Miao Miao of Australia 13-11, 8-11, 12-10, 8-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8.

Meanwhile, in the women doubles Mo Zhang-Sara Yuen (Canada) thrashed the Indian pair of Sushmita Roy and Vishaka Vijay 11-9, 11-9, 7-11, 11-9 in the first semi-final, while Yue Gu Wang-Bei Bei Sun (Singapore) trounced Lee Wei Beh-Sock Khim NG (Malaysia) 7-11, 13-11, 12-10, 11-6 in the other semi-final.

The hosts suffered their third consecutive blow of the day when the duo of Subhajit Saha and Anirban Nandi was outplayed by the Singaporaen pair of Ning Gao and Zi Yang 12-10, 11-2, 11-7, 11-2 to advance to the finals of the men's doubles. They will meet the Nigerian pair of Monday Merotohun and Kazeem Nosiru, who defeated Muh Shakirin Ibrahim-Kiang Beng Chai (Malaysia) 9-11, 12-10, 11-5, 9-11, 11-7, in the final.

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