Paris Olympics 2024: Table tennis star Sharath Kamal makes shock exit, loses to Deni Kozul in Round of 64
By Sunita Iyer | First Published Jul 28, 2024, 4:47 PM ISTIndian table tennis star Achanta Sharath Kamal made a surprising exit from the Paris Olympics men's singles competition, falling 2-4 to lower-ranked Deni Kozul of Slovenia in a round of 64 match on Sunday.
Indian table tennis star Achanta Sharath Kamal made a surprising exit from the Paris Olympics men's singles competition, falling 2-4 to lower-ranked Deni Kozul of Slovenia in a round of 64 match on Sunday.
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The 42-year-old Sharath Kamal, participating in his fifth Olympics, was defeated with scores of 12-10, 9-11, 6-11, 7-11, 11-8, 10-12 by his opponent, who is ranked 86 places below him. The match lasted 53 minutes.
India's Flag bearer Sharath Kamal lost his opening match to lower ranked Kozul ๐ธ๐ฐ 2-4
Can't believe still, Most disappointing result pic.twitter.com/n2l88NqxK8
Despite being the Commonwealth Games champion and ranked 40th in the world, Sharath Kamal won a close first game but then lost the next three, putting him behind 1-3. He managed to win the fifth game, making it 2-3, but lost another close game to ultimately bow out of the competition. His opponent, Deni Kozul, is ranked 126th in the world.
๐ฎ๐ณ ๐๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ถ๐ป๐๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ต ๐๐ฎ๐บ๐ฎ๐น! Sharath Kamal despite putting up a strong fight fails to advance to the round of 32 in the men's singles event.
๐ After winning the first game, Sharath Kamal unfortunately could not carry on the momentum as heโฆ pic.twitter.com/HFvGWS6pXl
Earlier in the day, Indiaโs top-ranked female paddler, Sreeja Akula, advanced to the round of 32 with a dominant 4-0 victory over Swedenโs Christina Kallberg.
Sreeja Akula, who made history as the first Indian paddler to win a WTT Contender singles title, secured a 11-4, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8 victory over Sweden's Christina Kallberg in just 30 minutes.
The Indian paddler had an easy win in the first set but faced tougher competition in the second. Kallberg continued to challenge her in the next two sets.
In the third set, both players were evenly matched up to 7-5, but Sreeja regained her composure to clinch the set.
Sreeja started strong in the fourth set, taking a 9-3 lead. However, some unforced errors and a few strong smashes from Kallberg reduced the lead to 9-7 and then to 10-8.
A powerful, unanswered forehand to the right corner secured Sreeja's progression to the next round.
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