Sharath advances; Manika, Mouma in TT World Championships quarters

Even as Sharath Kamal stormed into the round of 32, beating Ukraines Kou Lei in straight games 11-3, 11-9, 14-12, 11-3, the success story of Manika Batra and Mouma Das continued as the Indian women's pair entered the quarter-finals of the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships on Thursday.

The Indians got a walkover from the Netherlands and Polish combination of Li Jie and Li Quian; the latter was reportedly hospitalised on Wednesday night after falling sick.

Sharath, ranked 43 in the world, defeated the Ukrainian, ranked 24, rather easily without wasting much time.

The 20th seeded player, however, put in his best efforts in the third game when he managed to stretch the Indian.

But that was all he could do as Sharath, running into a nice rhythm, simply ran past his rival in quick time to advance. In his next round, the top-ranked Indian will meet either Austrian Habesohin or Chinese Lin Gaoyuan on Friday.

"I got into a groove very early and my backhand coming off nicely. I am taking one match at a time and I am not worried about my next round opponent, said Sharath.

Earlier, after beating the Russian pair the Indian women pair of Manika Batra and Mouma were ready for their Polish-Dutch combine. But Manika and Mouma could not believe their luck when their opponents did not turn up for their pre-quarterfinal match and the Indians were declared 4-0 winners.

They would now take on the No. 1 and 2 Chinese players, Ding Ning and Liu Shiwen on Friday in the quarter-finals, a lethal left and right combination.

--IANS

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