Achanta Sharath Kamal led from the front, helping India beat Egypt 3-1 to enter the final of the second division in the 2016 table tennis World Championships in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
Achanta Sharath Kamal led from the front, helping India beat Egypt 3-1 to enter the final of the second division in the 2016 table tennis World Championships in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
It was a memorable night for Indian paddlers with both the men’s and women’s squads entering the finals, and also qualifying for the Champions Division.
Having beaten Nigeria 3-2 to in the quarter-finals earlier in the day, Indian men downed Egypt to set up a final clash with Brazil, who defeated Serbia 3-1 in the other semi-final.
Following in the men’s team footsteps, the women inflicted a 3-2 defeat to Serbia in their semi-final. They had defeated Puerto Rica 3-1 in the quarters.
After Soumyajit Ghosh lost in the opening rubber against Omar Assar, it was left to Sharath to pull the rug from under Egypt’s feet.
The Indian ace beat Mohammed El-Beiali 11-7, 11-5, 11-9 to level the scores and in a very tricky third rubber, Harmeet Desai accounted for El-Sayed Lashin 3-2 to leave matters in the hand of Sharath who was to play his reverse singles next against Assar.
And the top world-ranked Indian did not disappoint as he disposed off Assar in straight games to seal India’s entry in the Champions Division.
In the women’s semis, Mouma Das lost 1-3 to Anamaria Erdelji, while national champion Manika Batra too went down to Gabriela Feher.
K. Shamini provided the spark with a 3-1 win over Andrea Todorovic to put India back on track. Both Batra and Das then came out stronger to defeat Anamaria and Gabriela, 3-1 and 3-0, respectively as India sealed the tie.
They meet Luxemburg in the final.
