Achant Sharath Kamal played a stunning game against world number 21 Petr Korbel of Czech Republic but failed to pull off an upset bowing out 4-3 in the men's singles pre-quarter-final match at the Chile Open in Santiago.
Sharath, high on confidence after his maiden semi-final appearance in the Brazil Open pro-tour last week, gave Korbel a tough fight, but the fourth seed managed to sneak into the quarters with a 11-8, 9-11, 11-2, 7-11, 11-7, 10-12, 11-6 win.
The Indian, who was playing Korbel for the first time, came back strongly after losing the close first game to pocket the next one.
The see-saw battle continued and Sharath, ranked 124 in world, snatched a match point advantage from him in the sixth game to make it 3-3.
But Korbel kept his nerve to win the last game and enter the last eight.
Korbel later admitted that he found Sharath very tough to play against.
"He [Sharath] is a good player, he is hard to play against and he played well; in the rallies he was very good.
"I had to play my best and I think I played at my very best in the seventh game; it's the first time I've ever played him, next time I think I'll try some different tactics," the Czech paddler said.
Korbel, however, failed to progress further as he was shocked by Joao Monteiro of Portugal 11-9, 13-11, 11-4, 13-11 in the quarter-finals.
