India Open: Top seed Ovtcharov, Sharath cruise

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 4-1 (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 4-0 (11-3, 11-3, 11-5, 11-4)  in the pre-quarter-finals after crushing Abdulazil Al-Abbad of Saudi Arabia in the first round by the same margin.

The four-time Olympic medallist was in red-hot form on the day and dictated terms from the word go against 21-year-old Geraldo.

Repeatedly outfoxing Geraldo with fiery returns and smashes, the 2012 Olympic silver medallist took just 15 minutes to outplay the Portuguese.

Meanwhile, Gnanasek-aran Sathiyan put up a valiant fight in the first round, losing to ninth seeded Masataka Morizono of Japan in seven games.

Home girls bow out
Archana Kamath was the lone home girl to enter the pre-quarter-finals on the day 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 4-2 (9-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-7, 12-10, 12-10). Kamath’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. This is my first tournament in charge after many years away from India. I got a good perspective from several players and that gives a good prospect for the future,” Constantini told this papet.

On the day it was the end of the road for Sutirtha Mukherjee, Moumita Dutta, Mousumi Paul and Mouma Das in the second round.