India loses to France in World Team TT championship opener

India's Sharath Kamal notched two singles victories but that wasn't enough to stop his team from going down to France in the opening tie of the World team table tennis championship.

Sharath Kamal won his singles encounters against France's Emmanuel Lebesson and Simon Gauzy.

Despite Sharath Kamal's heroics, India lost to France 3-2 in the men's Group-D Championship Division match of the World team table tennis championship, which commmenced, here, on Sunday. Sharath defeated two World top-30 players in Emmanuel Lebesson (28) and Simon Gauzy (10), but the others couldn't rally around him. Earlier, India lost to China 3-0 in a women’s Group-A Championship Division match.

The results: Championship DivisionMen Group D: India lost to France 3-2 (G. Sathiyan lost to Simon Gauzy 13-11, 7-11, 11-7, 10-12, 10-12; Sharath Kamal bt Emmanuel Lebesson 9-11, 11-5, 11-9, 13-11; A.Amalraj lost to Quentin Robinot 7-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-5, 6-11; Sharath Kamal bt Simon Gauzy 11-8, 11-7, 10-12, 14-12; Sathiyan lost to Emmanuel Lebesson 11-13, 4-11, 9-11, 3-11). Women  Group-A: India lost to China 3-0 (Mouma Das lost to Ding Ning 11-6, 11-2, 11-4; Manika Batra lost to Manyu Wang 12-10, 11-9, 11-5; Madhurika Patkar lost to Meng Chen111-8, 11-1, 11-5).