Sharath puts up a good fight, but falls short to Lin

India’s Sharath Kamal Achanta after his flourish in the opening two rounds saw his good run come to a halt by Chinese Gaoyuan Lin in the men’s singles round of 32 match, of the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships, according to information received from Dusseldorf, here, on Saturday.

The top Indian paddler, ranked 54th in the world put up quite a decent fight and a stiff challenge to the higher ranked Chinese Gaoyuan (rank 40) before going down 2-4 late on Friday night.

Sharath, the 43rd seed, started solidly against Gaoyuan and went on to win the first game on his second game point. But, the 33rd seed Gaoyuan finally came good and won the next two games to jump to a 2-1 lead. Sharath came up with a spirited display and managed to draw level by winning the fourth game and stay in the fight.

However, the superior Gaoyuan steadied his game and played more consistently to take the match away from the Indian by winning the subsequent two games to wrap up the issue with 13-11, 9-11, 7-11, 11-8, 8-11 and 4-11 verdict in his favour.

Sharath admitted that it was a disappointment for him. “When I made it 2-all, I thought I had a chance. But some mistakes on my part proved costly. Lin didn’t let me play my game in the latter part, he was too good,” said the Indian.

Sharath’s exit marked the end of the Indian challenge in the World Championship as all the other Indians had already been ousted.