Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal's heroics went in vein as India went down to China 1-3 in the quarter-final to bow out of men's team event on the third day of the 19th Asian Table Tennis Championships in Lucknow on Wednesday.
Sharath, world number 70, came up with brilliant efforts to beat Wu Hao of China 3-2 in a marathon encounter when the hosts were one-match down in the Champions Division match at Uttar Pradesh Badminton Academy at Gomti Nagar.
After losing the first game 3-11 before a motley crowd, the lanky Indian clawed his way back by snatching the second game 12-10, but again lost the third one (7-11) to the Chinese.
But none of his compatriots could match their Chinese opponents and curtains were dropped on the hosts' challenge in men's team event at the week-long prestigious event.
Soumyadeep Roy suffered a 0-3 humiliation at the hands of Wang Liqin in the first encounter, while Ma Long blanked Sourav Chakraborty with an identical scoreline in the third tie.
Under pressure, Sharath also failed to maintain the rhythm in his return clash against Liqin and lost 2-3 to allow the Chinese settle the issue.
China then beat Hong Kong 3-1 en route to the final, where they play Japan, who beat Chinese Taipei 3-2 in semi-final on Thursday.
Indian men, who went down 0-3 to Korea for third their successive loss in the tournament in classification play-off, will take on Singapore with an eye on seventh place finish.
Women's team event will see a summit clash between China and Singapore on Thursday. China beat Korea 3-0, before Singapore defeated Hong Kong 3-2 in semi-finals.
Indian eves failed to qualify for the Champions Division.
