India’s hopes of securing a medal in the ongoing WTT Contender in Doha ended on Thursday as Sharath Kamal suffered a straight-set defeat against World No.7 Lin Yun-Ju in the men’s singles Round of 16 clash.
The World No.32 lost 6-11, 4-11, 8-11 against his higher-ranked Chinese Taipei opponent. Third-seed Yun-Ju, who came into the contest after getting the better of Germany’s Benedikt Duda, gave his Indian opponent no chance, claiming the opening game by a fair margin.
Known as the "Silent Assassin," the young left-hander continued his domination in the second game too as he stifled Kamal.
Kamal, who was playing his first international tournament post the COVID-19 pandemic, showed some resistance in the third game. But he couldn’t hold on before finally surrendering to Yun-Ju.
Meanwhile, Indian mixed doubles pairing of G Sathiyan and Sutirtha Mukhrejee also bowed out of the WTT Contender after losing to French duo Emmanuel Lebesson and Jia Nan Yuan 0-11, 0-11, 0-11. Earlier, Sathiyan had lost his men’s singles Round of 32 clash against World No.20 Aruna Quadri of Nigeria.
India didn’t have a participation in the women’s main draw after Manika Batra, India's dominant number one and multi-medalist at the Commonwealth Games, and Sreeja Akula failed to get past their final qualifying round matches.
While World No.63 Batra lost to World No.69 Ganna Gaponova 5-11, 6-11, 14-12, 5-11, the 22-year-old Akula lost 9-11, 11-5, 11-6, 6-11, 5-11 in a thrilling tie against Russian Mariia Tailakova. They had earlier won two back-to-back matches in the qualifying rounds.
Harmeet Desai also couldn’t get past the qualifiers, losing 11-9, 11-7, 9-11, 8-11, 2-11 against Russia’s Alexander Shibaev in the men’s singles third round encounter.
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