Sharath suffers a shock defeat in World TT

Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal suffered a shock defeat to lower-ranked Chen Chien-An of Chinese Taipei in the first round and bowed out of the World Table Tennis Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

World No 54 Sharath, the country's best bet in the prestigious event, struggled throughout his first round match against the world No 106 before losing 1-4 in the men's singles main draw.

Sharath, after winning the opening game, lost 11-8, 9-11, 8-11, 7-11, 9-11.

Sharath had a direct entry into the men's singles.

The other Indians in the fray -- Soumyadeep Roy, Abishek Ravichandran, Anthony Amalraj and Subhajit Saha -- lost in the qualifiers at different stages on Tuesday.

In the men's doubles, the Commonwealth Games doubles gold-winniar duo of Sharath and Subhajit Saha also failed to live up to reputation and were defeated by the North Korean pair of Kim Nam Chol and Ri Chol Guk 4-11, 12-10, 13-15, 7-11, 7-11 in the first round.

The other Indian pair, Amalraj Anthony and Soumyadeep Roy lost 11-7, 5-11, 8-11, 5-11, 5-11 to the second seeded Chinese pair of Wang Hao and Zhang Jike.

In the women's singles event, Madhurika Patkar, Mouma Das and Poulomi Ghatak failed to get past the first hurdle and lost to higher-seeded opponents.

All three made it to the main draw after winning their respective qualifiers on Tuesday.

However, the Indian challenge is not yet over in the week-long championship.

Amalraj Anthony and Soumyadeep Roy will play in Thursday's singles consolation matches while Shamini Kumaresan and Mamata Prabhu feature in the women's singles consolation matches.

The consolation match is played amongst the players who lose in the qualifiers.