Indian challenge ends in Asian TT

Curtains were drawn on Indian challenge after all three doubles pairs lost their respective matches to crash out of the 19th Asian Table Tennis Championships in Lucknow.

The Indian combo of Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sourav Chakraborty squandered an early 1-0 lead before going down to Jiang Tianyi and Tang Peng of Hong Kong 3-1 in men's doubles pre-quarterfinal.

Despite a spirited start with 11-7 win in the first game, the Indian pair couldn't stop the Hong Kong duo from coming back into the match as they bagged three consecutive games (11-5, 11-6, 11-6) to wrap up the issue.

Soumyadeep Roy and Jubin Kumar fell to Chinese duo of Wang Liqin and Zhang Jike 0-3 after losing the encounter 6-11, 3-11, 6-11.

India's number one women pair of Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das also lost 1-3 to Jiang Huajun and T Ya Na of Hong Kong.

After losing the first two games (7-11, 9-11), the experienced Indian pair tried to claw their way back into the match and bagged the third one 11-7. But their comeback bid was foiled as Poulomi-Mouma lost the next game 3-11.

Meanwhile, Chinese pair of Ma Long and Li Xiaoxia defeated Zhang Jike and Ding Ning 4-2 in an all-Chinese affair to bag the mixed doubles title in the prestigious event.

Long-Xiaoxia (4-2) beat compatriots Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen, while Jike-Ning (4-2) overcame Japanese pair of Kishikawa Seiya and Ai Fukuhara in mixed doubles semi-final on Saturday.

Chinese have already defended both the men's and women's team events in the week-long tournament.

Meanwhile, World number two Long was among four Chinese who stormed into the mens singles semi-final, making Sunday's final four stage an all-Chinese affairs.

Long got the better of Japanese Matsudaira Kenta 4-0 to set up a clash with Xu Xin, who beat world number 11 Mizutani Jun of Japan 4-1 in a long-drawn match.

On the other hand, Zhang Jike (4-1) overcame Hong Kong's Cheung Yuk and now plays world number five Wang Liqin, who eliminated Korean Jan Song Man 4-1.

Chinese women also reserved all the sigles semi-final berths to their names.

World number four Xiaoxia, after blanking Jiang Huajun 4-0, now takes on Fan Ying (4-3), who quelled tough challenge from compatriot Wu Yang in quarterfinal.

World number nine Ding Ning, who beat Korean Kim Kyung Ah 4-3, would now locks horns with number three Liu Shiwen.