Indian women sail past Italy; men stumble

India’s women paddlers maintained their good form as they brushed aside Italy with a 3-1 victory while the men’s team lost 2-3 against the same rivals in the Stage-I of the 2nd division group matches at the World Table Tennis Championships here on Wednesday.

In the women’s tie, K Shamini battled before losing 4-11, 3-11, 11-8, 11-9, 9-11 to Chiara Colantoni.

Manika Batra then levelled proceedings defeating Debora Vivarelli 11-8, 8-11, 11-9, 14-12 to level the sore. Then Pooja Sahasrabudhe, who was playing her first match, accounted for Lisa Ridolfi 8-11, 11-3, 13-11, 11-3. Manika then, won her reverse singles by beating Colantoni in straight games of 11-8, 11-6, 11-5.

They have one more match in Stage 1 against Bulgaria.

In the men’s event, Harmeet Desai lost his opening singles to Mihai Bobocica 10-12, 11-8, 7-11, 9-11 but both Achanta Sharath Kamal and Soumyajit Ghosh won their singles.

Sharath beat Niagol Stoyanov 12-10, 12-10, 11-3, while Ghosh downed Leanardo Mutti 6-11, 11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9.

In his reverse singles, however, Sharath lost to Mihai 1-11, 7-11, 11-7, 12-10, 9-11 putting the burden back on Desai who failed to pass the test against Niagol as he lost 11-8, 7-11, 8-11, 22-24.