Seasoned Sharath taken to school by a 13-year-old

SHARATH KAMAL’S splendid run at the India Open was eventually ended by an excited schoolkid. Tomokazu Harimoto, 13, played aggressively, ‘cho’d at the top of his lungs and backed his world ranking of 69 to beat the Indian 4-2 in the semifinals of the $150,000 ITTF World Tour event at the Thayagraj Stadium on Saturday.

Harimoto will take on top seed and World No. 5 Dimitrij Ovtcharov in Sunday’s final. The 29-year-old German — who defeated Japan’s Koki Niwa — said Harimoto “was not even born when I started playing. And I’m not that old.” Livid with the number of unforced errors, Sharath said, “I felt like a beginner out there.” However, it was never going to be easy for Sharath, especially after the seven-game quarterfinal earlier in the day which saw the Indian avenge his 2010 Commonwealth Games defeat to Paul Drinkhall 4-3.

That there was a spate of silly errors in the match could be attributed to the psychological warfare the friends-cum-rivals engaged in. At the end of the clash, both said the match became “too tactical”, with Sharath adding, “We both were thinking too much but he was reading my game better.”

Saveforthewhirlwindfirstgame,drinkhall seemed to have Sharath’s number. The world No. 42 slowed the game down, playing closer to the net. Sharath — who had dismantled world No. 24 Yuto Muramatsu the day before — was forced to play close to the table and felt like he “was always chasing the game”, even when ahead on the scoreline.

“I wasn’t aggressive. I wasn’t shouting too much,” said Sharath. “It just wasn’t coming from the inside.” After being down a game, Drinkhall took a 2-1 lead with tight 12-10 and 11-9 games. Sharath took the next two to lead 3-2 and looked set to close out the match. However, he faltered at 9-9 to lose the sixth game and Drinkhall raced to an 8-5 lead in the decider.

Nail-biting finish

The ebb and flow of the match culminated in a nail-biting finish. Sharath roared back with three straight points and set up a match point, which was saved by Drinkhall. The 27-year-old saw his own chance at 11-10 wasted before Sharath earned his second. And the match ended with Sharath again trying to read his opponent’s mind, this time correctly, to win with a blistering return. “I knew the last ball was going to be long and I just took a corner. It would’ve been through had he served the other way. When I saw I was in the right position, I threw my racquet out.”

Drinkhall, on the other hand, admitted that “trying to stop him from attacking, I couldn’t be aggressive myself.” Sharath’s performance in the tournament should see him break into the top 50 of the world rankings.

File Though Sharath lost, his run till the semifinal was unprecedented.

Harimoto played an aggressive game.