Sharath misses two back-to-back upset in Japan Open by whisker

Chiba, Japan, June 22 (UNI) Ace paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal registered a major upset in the first round of ITTF Japan ProTour event by defeating world no 19 Lee Jung-Wo of Korea, but bowed out in the next round to world no 9 Ma Long of China here today.

The world 99th ranked player Sharath, who had to go through the qualifying rounds of the top event, churned out what can be termed as one of his best performances, overpowering the higher ranked Korean in a see-saw seven-game encounter 11-7, 9-11, 12-10, 11-9, 6-11, 7-11, 11-9 in the first round.

However, the national champion could not continue with his form as after showing some fire, he eventually bowed down against Ma Long 11-4, 5-11, 5-11, 11-9, 4-11, 10-12.

Meanwhile, it was a totally different scenario in the doubles, as Sharath and his Russian partner Alexei Liventsov failed to qualify for the final draw after bowing out in the third round of the qualifiers.

Earlier, the Indo-Russian pair got a bye in the first round and then defeated the Denish pair of Christoffer Petersen and Kasper Sternberg 11-8, 11-7, 13-11 in the next round.

UNI