Asian Table Tennis Championships: Indian women's team loses 1-3 to Japan in quarter-finals

Doha: Sreeja Akula lost twice as the Indian women’s team suffered a 1-3 defeat against top-seeded Japanese in the quarter-finals of the Asian Table Tennis Championships. Japan’s World No 19 Hitomi Sato tamed Akula 11-5, 11-3, 11-3 in the first match, while Archana Kamath went down fighting to Saki Shibata 12-10, 7-11, 4-11, 12-10, 9-11. Archana took two games on extended points against Saki, who is ranked 42, besides running her close in the fifth. However, Saki managed to put Japan 2-0 ahead. Sutirtha Mukherjee arrested the slide with a 3-2 (11-7, 11-8, 5-11, 7-11, 11-8) win over Miyu Nagasaki, giving a scare to the Japanese. But in the end, Saki settled the issue in her reverse singles against Akula, winning 8-11, 10-12, 11-2, 11-9, 11-8. The women blanked Uzbekistan 3-0 in the second stage of the qualifiers while accounting for Nepal and Jordan with similar scorelines in the first stage. The men’s team beat Iran 3-1 in the quarter-finals on Wednesday to assure itself of a maiden medal in the tournament. They will take on South Korea in the semi-finals on Friday.