India’s representation in the singles events of the World Table Tennis Championship was reduced to just four players, three of them women, after six others failed to qualify for the main draw.
The championship is being held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Achanta Sharath Kamal, who got a direct entry, is the only Indian in the men’s singles main draw as Soumyadeep Roy, Abishek Ravichandran, Anthony Amalraj and Subhajit Saha fell in the qualifiers at different stages.
Sharath Kamal has been drawn against Chinese Taipei’s Chen Chien-An in the first round clash.
The women players, who made it to the singles main draw, are Poulomi Ghatak, Mouma Das and Madhurika Patkar.
Mamata Prabhu topped the four-player group 61 but lost 11-8 12-10 11-5 5-11 13-11 to Belarussian Alena Dubkova in the first round of the final qualification competition.
K. Shamini lost to Sibel Remzi of Bulgaria 11-9 5-11 13-11 11-9 5-11 11-9 in her match.
Poulomi Ghatak has been pitted against Japanese Hiroko Fujii in her first round. She beat Germany’s Maria Christoforaki 9-11 9-11 11-8 17-15 11-9 6-11 11-8 in the qualifiers.
Mouma Das will also open her campaign against a Japanese player Ayuka Tanioka. She had beaten Naomi Owen of Wales 11-6 13-11 5-11 11-8 8-11 11-8 in her qualifying round.
Madhurika Patkar will clash with Hong Kong’s Wing Nam Ng.
She had brushed aside the challenge of Brazllian Jessica Yamada 11-2 11-4 11-5 11-8.
In the men’s qualifiers, Soumyadeep lost 11-13 11-9 11-7 6-11 12-10 8-11 11-5 to Pablo Tabachnik of Argentina while Abishek lost 11-6 8-11 11-6 11-6 11-7 to Swiss Nicola Mohler
Amalraj defeated Singapore’s Pang Xue Jie but later lost 11-8 11-9 11-8 11-6 to Espen Ronneberg of Norway.
Subhajit Saha’s opponent in the first round - Jonathan Pino - was disqualified but later the Indian lost 8-11 4-11 11-8 11-9 11-9 11-5 to Jose Ramirez of Guyana.
