An erratic Achanta Sharath Kamal joined the fast-growing list of home-bound Indians after 32 minutes of futility in the second round of the men's table tennis
BEIJING: An erratic Achanta Sharath Kamal joined the fast-growing list of home-bound Indians after 32 minutes of futility in the second round of the men's table tennis event at the Beijing Olympic Games here on Wednesday.
The lanky Indian tried every trick in the book before eventually kowtowing to his Chinese-born Austrian opponent Chen Weixing and crash out with a 1-4 defeat in just over half an hour.
It turned out to be a learning experience indeed for the Indian at the Peking University Gymnasium where Chen, armed with stinging whiplash forehand and vicious backhands, prevailed 11-5 14-12 11-2 8-11 and 12-10.
Initially, it promised to be an even battle with the opponents levelled at 4-4 before Chen broke loose, capturing seven of the next eight points to wrap up the first game.
Sharath, however, was yet to throw in the towel and he looked better placed at 9-7 before relaxing his grip and Chen was quick to level the score at 12-12 before pouncing on Sharath's poor serve to snatch the game.
The third game was the most lop-sided of all and Sharath simply had no clue what was going there. Chen dropped just two points before grabbing the game and the writing was clear on the wall for the Indian.
Struggling to stay afloat, Sharath made a comeback of sort in the fourth game to make it 3-1 but that was merely delaying the inevitable as Chen hit back with vengeance.
Chen raced to a 5-1 lead in the fifth game and though the Indian caught up with him at 10-10, the Austrian unleashed two lethal forehands and Sharath could only see haplessly as both of his returns were buried in the net.
"I could not do anything against him today," a dejected Sharath said.
"My forehand was not working well today. That's my strength and without my forehand, I'm a lesser force. Besides, I erred at crucial points and simply had no chance," he explained.
Sharath said it was a tactical battle that he lost against Chen, who had beaten the Indian in their previous meeting at the Austria Open.
"I just could not execute my plans today and nothing really worked against him. I was erratic in the beginning and faltered in the second game when I needed to hold my nerve. In the fourth, I tried to crawl back into the match but fluffed things trying to play on to his body," said the Commonwealth Games gold medallist.
His Olympic campaign over, Sharath now wants to get back to European club league and has set himself a new goal.
"I have been stuck in the 70s for quite a while and I want to improve my ranking and break into the 50s. That would be the next goal for me," he added.
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