Doha, Mar 4 (PTI) Indian challenge at the World Table Tennis Contender series ended after veteran Sharath Kamal suffered a loss to world no 7 Lin Yun-Ju of Chinese Taipei in the men's singles pre-quarterfinals here on Thursday.

The 38-year-old Indian suffered a 6-11, 4-11, 8-11 defeat against Lin.

The World No. 32 Sharath, who was playing his first international tournament after a year's break due to the COVID-19 pandemic, couldn't gain momentum despite showing good resistance in the latter part of the match against the higher-ranked Yun-Ju.

Earlier, Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula also lost their respective final qualifying round matches in the women's singles category.

While Batra lost to World No. 69 Ganna Gaponova 5-11, 6-11, 14-12, 5-11, Akula, who had outclassed World No. 74 Vega Paulina of Chile in the earlier round, went down fighting 9-11, 11-5, 11-6, 6-11, 5-11 to Russian opponent Mariia Tailkova.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)