Young Ritu Malik kept India in medal contention by reaching the bronze play-off, but there was no end to the woes of Sakshi Malik, who suffered a humiliating quarter-final defeat, and Ritu Phogat at the World Championships, in Budapest, on Wednesday.
Ritu Malik, who had defeated the celebrated Geeta Phogat in the trials, edged out Bulgaria's Sofiya Hristova Georgieva 9-8 in the repechage round despite lagging twice in an exciting bout.
She trailed 0-3 after the first period but a four-point throw in the second and a step out-point pushed her ahead to 5-3.
However, the confident Bulgarian reduced the deficit to one point soon. Ritu again found a four-point move to zoom to a 9-6 lead. Sofiya kept Ritu under pressure but the Indian grappler just about managed to maintain her lead to progress to the medal round.
Ritu now has a task on hand as she is up against 2017 Under-23 World champion and this year's World Cup gold medal winner Ayana Gempei from Japan.
There was yet more disappointment in store for Olympic medallist Sakshi, who was outclassed 2-16 by Japan's Yukako Kawai, a two-time World Cup gold winner in the 62 kg category.
Sakshi lost a point for passivity but took the break with a 2-1 lead after a take-down move.
However, in the second period, the Japanese inflicted humiliation on the Indian. Yukako took three points with a leg-hold move and consolidated the lead with a take-down. She followed it up with 'fitley', rolling Sakshi four times to log eight points.
Sakshi had endured a below-par show at the Commonwealth Games, where she won a bronze in a weak field and failed to reach the medal round at the Jakarta Asian Games.
In the 50 kg category, Ritu Phogat, who replaced her injured cousin Vinesh Phogat, made a stupendous start by winning the pre-quarter-final against Thi Yuan Nguyen by technical superiority but lost the quarterfinal by fall to Yui Susaki, the 2017 World champion in 48 kg category.
Pinki (53kg) lost her quarter-final to Poland's Katarzyna Krawczyk 2-7 while CWG silver medallist Pooja Dhanda lost 3-4 to China's Ningning Rong at the same stage in the 57 kg category.
