Defending Champion Achanta Sharath Kamal stormed into the men’s singles semifinals after defeating Cai Xiao Li of Singapore in the 17th Commonwalth Table Tennis Championship on Monday.

The Chennai-paddler faced little resistance from Cai Xiao Li as he carved out a 11-9 10-12 11-3 11-7 11-4 win to remain on course to defend his title. Earlier in the day, he beat Andrew Roshtom of England in the pre-quarters.
“The second game I lost because I played very badly and missed a lot but then I picked myself up. It was a very satisfactory win,” Sharath said. “My placements were very good and top spin was working excellent. You could have placed a coin and I would have hit, it was so accurate today.”

In the semifinals, Sharath meets the formidable Gao Ning of Singapore, the top seed, who ousted Zhilong Brad Chen of New Zealand 11-9 11-6 11-7 12-10.

In the other semifinal, second seed Yang Zi will take on Nosiru Kazeem of Nigeria. Yang posted a 10-12 8-11 11-8 11-4 11-2 9-11 11-2 win over Gavin Rumgay of Scotland while Kazeem knocked out Australia’s William Henzell 12-10 11-6 11-9 11-9.

In the women’s section there was heartbreak in store for the hosts with Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das crashing out in the quarterfinals. Mouma lost 11-5 11-6 11-4 11-5 to Lee Wei Bee while Poulomi went down to second seed Sun Bei Bei 11-7 11-4 11-4 11-9 of Singapore.

In another women’s singles quarterfinals, Yue Gu Wang of Singapore beat Stephannie Xu Sang of Australia 11-8 11-6 11-4 11-4.

There was good news for India in the women’s doubles event where Vishaka Vijay and Shusmita Roy entered the semifinals riding on two upset wins.Second seed Miao Miao and Stephanie Xu Sang of Australia were beaten 8-11 11-9 11-9 13-11 by the Indian pair in the pre-quarterfinals. They then turned the tables on the fifth-seeded Nigerian combination of Cecilia Offiong and Edem Offiong, winning 6-11 12-10 11-5 7-11 11-9.
They will hope that their brilliant run would also continue against the fourth seed pair of Mo Zhang and Sar Yeun of Canada in the semifinals.

In men’s doubles, Shubhajit Saha and Anirban Nandi also reached the last-four beating teammates Ranbir Das and Shibaji Dutta 11-9 12-10 11-5.

A Amalraj, who created an upset in the first round, bowed out after losing to Zhilong Brad of New Zealand 12-10 11-6 11-5 5-11 8-11 11-8.