CWG TT: Triple delight for Sharath; Batra loses

Ace Indian paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal put up a sensational show to progress to the semi-finals in all his three events of the table tennis competition at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Friday.

The record nine-time National champion, who has as many as 10 CWG medals to his name, entered the men's singles semi-finals, beating Nigeria's Olajide Omotayo 4-2 in a thrilling contest.

Sharath, 40, also reached the semi-finals of mixed and men's doubles.

He first paired with young Sreeja Akula to stun two-time silver medallists Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho of England 3-2 (11-7, 8-11, 11-8, 11-13, 11-9) in mixed doubles quarters and then combined with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran to beat another English pair of Tom Jarvis and Sam Walker 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 11-4) in men's doubles.

Sreeja too dished out superlative performances to progress to the women's singles semi-finals to go with her mixed doubles showing.

The 24-year-old from Hyderabad showed nerves of steel as she scripted a sensational come-from-behind victory over Mo Zhang of Canada 9-11, 11-4, 6-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-8 to advance to the semi-finals.

Gnanasekaran also reached the men's singles quarters, beating Nicholas Lum 4-2, at the NEC Hall. However, Sanil Shetty lost 2-4 to Nigeria's Bode Abiodun.

Sreeja and Sharath had earlier come from behind to beat Malaysia's Leond Chee Fang and Ho Ying 5-11, 11-2, 11-6 11-5, while Sharath and Gnanasekaran eased past Bangladesh's Bawm Ramhimlian and Ridoy Mohutasin Ahmed 11-6, 11-1, 11-4 in their Round of 16 clash.

Defending champion Manika Batra, however, had a bad day as she suffered a 0-4 defeat to Jian Zeng of Singapore in the women's singles quarter-finals and bowed out of the competition.

Earlier, Manika and Sathiyan had lost 2-3 to Malaysia's Javen Choong and Karen Lyne, while men's pairing of Sanil Shetty and Harmeet Desai also ended their campaign with a 0-3 loss to Singapore's Chew Zhe Yu Clarence and Poh Shao Feng Ethan.

In another result, Sreeja and Reeth Tennison entered the pre-quarter-finals with a 3-0 win over Scotland's Lucy Elliott and Rebecca Plaistow.

Earlier in the day, Manika and Sreeja had entered the women's singles quarter-finals.

While the 27-year-old Batra steamrolled Australian Jee Minhyung 11-4, 11-8, 11-6, 12-10 to set up a fight with Singapore's Jian Zeng, Sreeja played out a nerve-wracking encounter against Charlotte Carey of Wales to secure herself a last eight berth.

The 24-year-old toiled hard but held her nerves to beat Carey 8-11, 11-7, 12-14, 9-11, 11-4, 15-13, 12-10.

Meanwhile, Reeth Tennison, bowed out in the women's singles event after she went down to Singapore's Feng Tianwei in a round of 16 match.

Tianwei proved too strong for Tennison as the latter was beaten 11-2, 11-4, 9-11, 11-3, 11-4. 

• Commonwealth Games 2022