Paddler Archana Kamath loses in the quarter-finals of WTT Star Contender

World No. 132 Archana Kamath suffered defeat at the hands of World No. 15 Doo Hoi Kem in the WTT Star Contender at Lusail Sports Arena in Doha, Qatar on Friday.

Archana lost the quarterfinal clash against Hong Kong's Doo Hoi Kem 11-9, 11-13, 8-11, 6-11, which ended the Indian contingent's run in Doha.

Archana was the lone warrior representing India after some big names were ousted early on in the competition. G Sathiyan, who received a bye in the first round, was stunned by Croatia's Andrej Gacina 6-11, 6-11, 7-11 on Thursday in the men's singles round of 32.

Archana had a phenomenal outing in Doha. She triumphed against World No. 93 Tin-Tin Ho of England, World No. 39 Zhang Mo of Canada, and World No. 57 Miyu Nagasaki of Japan in her journey till the quarterfinals.

Archana Kamath instantly got off the blocks and retaliated against Doo Hoi Kem’s moves with her fireworks at the Lusail Sports Arena. She had chosen her shots well to inflate her opponent's movement for the initial points and eventually went on to win the first game.

Archana started off the second game well. She often forced Doo Hoi Kem into the corner with her quick returns to force her to make mistakes but the 24-year-old Doo Hoi Kem fought back to draw parity.

Later, Doo Hoi Kem raced to a 7-1 lead in the third game. Although Archana Kamath tried her best to cut the deficit, the Indian fell short and gave away the match to the Hong Kong paddler.

Archana and other Indian paddlers journey at the WTT Star Contender tournament

Sreeja Akula, was ousted in the round-of-16 when she couldn't put it past Brazil's Bruna Takahasi, losing 0-3 (11-7, 11-4, 12-10). Sreeja did perform well initially, putting up a good fight to beat world No. 21 Suh Hyowon of South Korea 3-1 (11-5, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7), but lost in her round of 16 clash against Bruna Takahashi.

It wasn't a pleasant outing for the doubles teams. All the Indian players from the doubles section bowed out of the competition on Wednesday.

Sathiyan and Anthony Amalraj went down to Japanese duo Kazuhiro Yoshimura and Yuto Kizukuri 5-11, 11-9, 5-11, 6-11 in the opening round itself.