India’s Archana Kamath went down fighting to the second seed Doo Hoi Kem of Hong Kong 11-9, 11-13, 8-11, 6-11 in the women’s singles quarterfinals of the World Table Tennis Star Contender here on Friday.
The Indian, unseeded in the tournament and ranked 132 in the world, started wonderfully well against the 15th ranked paddler. Kamath's bold shots from the back of the table especially, the forehand down-the-line winners won her the first game.
After winning the first game, Archana was confidence-personified as she stretched Kem, who was part of the Hong Kong National team which won bronze in the women’s team event at the Tokyo Olympics, for almost every point.
However, Kem used her experience to good effect playing the crucial points well by not making many unforced errors during longer rallies to win a close second game. From there on, Kem didn’t have much of a problem.
Earlier in the tournament, Archana defeated three higher-ranked players making her way to the last eight.
Archana felt happy after having pulled off her best performance yet, in a major international event. Speaking to Sportstar , she said: "This was a good tournament where I got an opportunity to play some good matches and it was definitely a good learning experience. I need to improve and get better. I would love to thank Indian paddler Manav Thakkar for being very gracious in helping sit [as coach] in my matches here.
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