New Delhi: It was a cakewalk for top seed Dimitrij Ovtcharov as the world no. 5 entered the quarter-finals without losing a game in the ITTF World Tour Indian Open at the Thyagraj Stadium here on Friday. Eleventh seed Achanta Sharath Kamal kept Indian hopes alive after the women’s singles players had crashed out of the tournament.
National champion Sharath outplayed fourth seeded Yuto Muramatsu of Japan 11-8, 11-7, 11-4, 14-16, 11-4. The Chennai-born paddler hardly faced any resistance from the fourth seed and pocketed first three games without breaking a sweat. In the fourth, he squandered three match points before losing the game.
But he regained his touch in the fifth game to complete a comfortable victory.
Earlier, Ovtcharov stamped his authority in style, brushing aside world no. 96 Joao Geraldo of Portugal 11-3, 11-3, 11-5, 11-4 in the pre-quarter-finals.
Archana bows out
Archana Kamath was the lone home girl to enter the pre-quarter-finals but failed to progress as she lost to Sakura Mori of Japan 4-2 (11-3, 13-11, 5-11, 11-4, 10-12, 11-4).
Earlier she won the all-Indian first round match against 14th seed Ayhika Mukherjee 9-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-7, 12-10, 12-10. Archana’s defeat in the pre-quarters ended the home challenge in the women’s section but newly-appointed national coach Massimo Constantini was pleased with what he saw.
“I am happy with their performance. We still have a lot of work to do. I got a good perspective from several players and that gives a good prospect for the future,” Constantini told this paper.
