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World Team TT: Sharath Kamal steps up as India ease past Chile
The higher ranked men eased past the South Americans 3-0 but the women's team went down fighting to defending champions China in Busan, South Korea.
The Indian men's team began its quest to seal a 2024 Paris Olympics team quota on a clinical note, easing past Chile 3-0 without dropping a game in its Group 3 opener of the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Busan on Saturday. Unlike the Indian women who ran into defending champions China in their 2-3 opening defeat on Friday, the men, ranked 16th, had a far more straightforward outing to begin with against the 33rd-ranked Chileans.
Commonwealth Games champion Sharath Kamal, who has slumped to 95 in the WTT singles rankings, got an important win with a 3-0 (11-5, 11-8, 11-6) outcome against world No.53 Nicolas Burgos. India's top-ranked Harmeet Desai (67th) then had little trouble in brushing aside Gustavo Gomez (148th) 3-0 (11-8, 11-7, 11-6), while G Sathiyan was stretched a little by Felipe Olivares before also coming out a 3-0 (12-10, 11-8, 11-8) victor.
It was an interesting call to field the experienced Sharath for the opening match over the top-ranked Harmeet. The 41-year-old Sharath, who has had a wretched run of results in the last few months, had redirected his training goals towards stepping up in this event.
The win against a higher-ranked Burgos, therefore, should give him some confidence. Sharath was particularly impressive off his backhand wing, extracting errors from the top Chilean player with blocks and drives. After opening up the lead and maintaining it through the first game, the scores were locked at 3-3 in the second. That’s when Sharath broke away, winning five points on the bounce to stamp his authority on the game and tie.
Harmeet’s match played out in similar fashion against the left-handed Gomez. Breezing through the first game, Harmeet found himself in a hole at 3-5 in the second game before stringing together five straight points. The Indian finished the game off with two unreturned serves.
Sathiyan, who like Sharath is also going through a rough patch with his rankings having fallen to 104, was picked over young Manav Thakkar, the India No.2 at 86. The 2022 CWG singles bronze medallist was troubled a bit by southpaw Olivares and even faced game point in the opening game. A quick forehand winner to cap off a rally got Sathiyan out of it, and into two more comfortable games that followed. The men's team will next face Poland, ranked 18th, on Sunday, while the women will meet Hungary.
