Sharath withdraws, Indian campaign ends at TT Worlds

Sharath Kamal, forced to retire from the World TT championship

Suzhou (China), April 30 (IANS) India's Sharath Kamal withdrew from the World Table Tennis Championship following an injury here on Thursday.

The 33rd seed was to play Chinese Fang Bo in the men's singles third round but a hip injury, which he suffered during the second round match against Frenchmen Simon Gauzy, forced him to take no further part in the tournament. Sharath tore the adductor muscle in his right hip.

"I made a step to the right to play a forehand top spin. I felt a click in my right hip. I felt the pain again on the next point and took a medical time out," said the Indian.

"Before I played today I was experiencing problems with my hip. Before I played the doubles match I had pain killing injections and felt better. I continued with the match because I was leading 3-0 and I thought I deserved to win, had it been 2-1 or 2-2 then I would not have continued."

It was a big blow for Sharath, who has been in rich vein of form.

"I have been playing well recently. I played well at the Asian Cup," said Sharath, who reached the quarter-finals of the 28th Asian Cup just a month ago.

Later, it was the end of the road for India at the World Championships with Soumyajit Ghosh losing in the second round. Russian 41st seed Alexander Shibaev saw off Ghosh 11-7, 14-12, 4-11, 12-10, 11-9.

G. Sathiyan also experienced defeat at the hands of 13th seed Fang Bo. The Chinese won 9-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-5, 11-7 in the second round.