Tokyo 2020: Paddler Sharath Kamal defeated by China's Ma Long, India's medal hope from TT shattered
India's hope of winning a medal was shattered by the defeat of Sharath Kamal in the third round match of Men's Singles
The performance of Indian players in the Table Tennis event of the Tokyo Olympics was also disappointing. India's hope of winning a medal was shattered by the defeat of Sharath Kamal in the third round match of Men's Singles. Sharath Kamal had to face defeat at the hands of Rio Olympic gold medalist. He was defeated 4-1 by Ma Long of China. With this, Sharath Kamal's Olympic journey also ended without a medal. This is believed to be the last Olympics for 39-year-old Sharath Kamal, Long won the match 11-7 8-11, 13-11, 11-4, 11-4. The match lasted 46 minutes.
Table tennis is a match of 7 games. But, the match between Sharath Kamal and Mao Long reached its conclusion in just 5 games. The first game was in the name of Long, which he won 7-11. Sharath Kamal raised hopes of a comeback by winning the second game 11-8.
The veteran Sharath Kamal goes down to China's Ma Long in his 3rd round match. This was Sharath's 4th Olympics participation. With this, the #TableTennis campaign for India comes to an end in #Tokyo2020
— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) July 27, 2021
We witnessed some really bright results from TT at this games.#Cheer4India
After seeing an intense competition in the first two games, there were hopes from Sharath Kamal in the third game too. Sharat was seen living up to this expectation at one point of time but finally, the Chinese player managed to register a 13-11 win. However, Long won the next two games 13-11, 11-4 to take a 3-1 lead.
The Indian challenge in women's singles is also over. Manika Batra has lost in the third round and Sutirtha Mukherjee in the second round while the mixed doubles pair of Manika and Kamal lost in the first round