Sharath Kamal produced two stunning upsets in the space of four hours to enter the semifinals of the $100,000 NCC Indian Open table tennis championship here on Saturday.
Sharath played way above his world ranking of 91 to knock out World No.34 Patrick Baum of Germany and returned to tame the young Korean Jung Young Sik, ranked 64, in six games to earn a clash with top seed Dmitrij Ovtcharov.
“I've never beaten two higher ranked players in one session of play,” said Sharath.
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Coming into the pre-quarterfinals as an underdog against Baum, Sharath went on to script a sensational 13-11, 11-13, 11-7, 8-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-9 triumph.
In the doubles semifinals, an understandably tired Sharath and Subhajit Saha lost as expected to the Koreans Lee Sang Su and Seo Hyun Deok 11-7, 11-7, 11-8, 10-12, 13-11.
Earlier, the Indians made the grade by beating teammates Harmeet Desai and Devesh Karia 11-8, 11-8, 5-11, 10-12, 11-4, 11-8.
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The results:
Men's singles (quarterfinals): Dimitrij Ovtcharov (Ger) bt Kim Min Seok (Kor) 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-4, 11-6; A. Sharath Kamal (Ind) bt Jung Young Sik (Kor) 8-11, 11-5, 11-7, 7-11, 11-8, 12-10; Seo Hyun Deok (Kor) bt Lee Sang Su (Kor) 11-5, 11-5, 7-11, 12-10, 11-4; Gao Ning (Sin) bt Jean-Michel Saive (Bel) 11-7, 13-15, 11-7, 14-12, 11-4.
Women's singles (quarterfinals): Yu Mengyu (Sin) bt Kang Mi Soon (Kor) 11-6, 11-7, 11-7, 17-15; Huang Yi Hua (Tpe) bt Sun Beibei (Sin) 11-7, 11-6, 11-6, 11-9; Hwang Ji Na (Kor) bt Li Jie (Ned) 12-10, 13-11, 11-8, 12-10; Sayaka Hirano (Jpn) bt Li Jiao (Ned) 11-6, 12-10, 11-9, 8-11, 11-7.
Boys' under-21 (semifinals): Chen Chien-An (Tpe) bt Ovidiu Ionescu(Rou) 12-10, 11-6, 7-11, 11-6, 11-6; Kenji Matsudaira bt Jung Young Sik (Kor) 11-5, 11-7, 11-5, 11-3.
Girls' under-21 (semifinals): Yu Mengyu (Sin) bt Kang Mi Soon (Kor) 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-5; Kasumi Ishikawa (Jpn) bt Jin Dal Rae (Kor) 11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 11-5, 11-5.