The Indian paddlers' campaign in the 17th Asian Games ended here today after the men's team, led by Achanta Sharath Kamal, and the women's outfit lost in the quarterfinals stage to China and Singapore respectively.
In the men's team quarterfinals, India's top player Kamal was tamed 3-0 by world number one Xu Xin in just 21 minutes to get China off to a brilliant start. Kamal lost 7-11 7-11 7-11.
In the second match, Harmeet Desai was taken care of by Ma Long 1-3 in 27 minutes, losing it 5-11 11-7 2-11 6-11.
In the third match, Sanil Shetty was blanked 3-0 by Zhendong in barely 16 minutes. He lost 2-11 11-13 1-11 at the Suwon Gymnasium.
The result was similar in women's section also as they had no answer to the players from Singapore who won the quarterfinal 3-0.
Manika Batra lost to Tianwei Feng 0-3 in 22 minutes. The Indian lost the first match 7-11 8-11 7-11.
In the second match, Ankita Das was shown the door by Ye Lin 1-3 in 31 minutes. Das lost her match 9-11 8-11 6-11 8-11.
Singapore sealed the issue in their favour after Yihan Zhou outclassed veteran player Poulomi Ghatak 3-0 in only 20 minutes. Ghatak lost the match 5-11 13-11 9-11.
The Indian men and women had, earlier in the day, lost their respective team preliminary round group B matches to South Korea and China respectively.
