India’s table tennis campaign at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics came to an end on Tuesday as the veteran Sharath Kamal lost to the legendary Ma Long.
The Chinese, who won Gold at the Rio Olympics, is widely regarded as the best TT player in the world currently, won the contest 4-1 in 46 minutes.
Sharath had his task cut out in the third round, but the Indian took the fight to the player popularly known as The Dragon.
The Indian matched his opponent shot for shot till the first towel break in the first game before Long raced away with it and wrapped it up at 11-7.
However, Sharath fought back in style, keeping Long at arm’s length in the second game with some good play and taking the game at 8-11, clearly causing quite a bit of annoyance for his opponent who had vowed to not lose a game.
Sharath continued to throw the kitchen sink at the Chinese in the third game, again going toe to toe with him, right up until the late stages of the game. Long however pulled ahead in the tiebreaker and won the game 13-11 in 13 minutes, the longest game in the contest.
The Chinese then went through the gears and swiftly took the next two games at 11-4 and 11-4 in 13 minutes, to end India’s campaign at the TT event in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
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