Birmingham, Aug 5: Ace Indian paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal dished out a superlative performance, registering twin victories to advance to the semifinals of mixed and men’s doubles competition along with his respective partners at the Commonwealth Games here on Friday.
Sharath first paired up with young Sreeja Akula to stun two-time silver medallists Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho of England 3-2 (11-7 8-11 11-8 11-13 11-9) in mixed doubles and then combined with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran to beat another English pair of Tom Jarvis and Sam Walker 3-0 (11-6 11-8 11-4) in men’s doubles event.
Another mixed pair of Sathiyan and Manika Batra, however, went down 2-3 to Malaysian combination of Javen Choong and Karen Lyne, while men’s pairing of Sanil Shetty and Harmeet Desai also ended their campaign with a 0-3 loss to Singapore’s Chew Zhe Yu Clarence and Poh Shao Feng Ethan.
Sreeja and Sharath had earlier come from behind to beat Malaysia’s Leond Chee Fang and Ho Ying 5-11 11-2 11-6 11-5, while Sharath and Gnanasekaran eased past Bangladesh’s Bawm Ramhimlian and Ridoy Mohutasin Ahmed 11-6 11-1 11-4 in their round of 16 clash.
In another result, Sreeja and Reeth Tennison entered the pre-quarterfinals with a 3-0 win over Scotland’s Lucy Elliott and Rebecca Plaistow.
Earlier, Manika and Sreeja had entered the women’s singles quarterfinals. While the 27-year-old Batra steamrolled Australian Jee Minhyung 11-4 11-8 11-6 12-10 to set up a fight with Singapore’s Jian Zeng, Sreeja played out a nerve-wracking match to beat Charlotte Carey of Wales 8-11 11-7 12-14 9-11 11-4 15-13 12-10 to secure a last eight berth. (PTI)
