By IANS,
Macau : India’s Sharath Kamal and Subhajit Saha caused one of the biggest upsets of the Asian Table Tennis Championships when they beat China’s second seeds Ma Lin and Zhang Jike in straight games in the second round of men’s doubles here Monday.
The 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medalists won 11-2, 11-9, 11-5 and will now take on the Macau duo of Leong Kin Wa and Che Chi Pan in the pre-quarterfinals Tuesday. The home pair overcame a stiff resistance from Iran’s Alamiyan Noshad and Lotfollah Nasabi.
The other Indian pair of Anthony Amalraj and Sanil Shetty too progressed to the round of 16, beating Thailand’s Chaitat Chaisit and Wongsiri Nikom 13-11, 8-11, 5-11, 11-7, 13-7. They will meet the mighty Chinese pair of Ma Long and Wang Hao.
The talk of the day, however, was the way Sharath and Saha stunned Lin, who is the reigning Olympic champion, and Jike, the current world champion. The win became even more remarkable as Sharath had an ordinary outing in the team events where India reached the quarters.
“It was our best day. I had to make amends for the loss in the team event,” said an elated Sharath.
They had previously proven what they are capable of at crunch situations. They won the 2009 Commonwealth Championships at Glasgow and the 2010 Games in New Delhi, defeating the top seeds Gao Ning and Yang Zi of Singapore.