Pakistani squad face defeat at the initial rounds of the World Championship - Table tennis Update
Saleem Abbas and Asim Qureshi have lost their initial qualifying rounds of the event, at the 2011 GAC GROUP World Table Tennis Championships, being held in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
The Pakistani squad participated in the event the after five years. The squad featured Ali Faisal, Saleem Abbas and Asim Qureshi in the Men's singles squad. Shabnam Bilal and Aisha Ansari participated in the Women's singles events.
The only players who managed to reach the main draws were Asim Qureshi and Shabnam Bilal, in the Mixed Doubles’ category.
Saleem won the group round of the championship, but he lost in the first preliminary round of the qualifiers. He faced defeat from Slovakian, Juskovic. Abbas made an impressive start and won the first two games, 11-8, 11-9, but Juskovic made a comeback and
won the next two games scoring, 12-10, 11-9. The Slovakian player sealed the match by winning the next two games, 11-7, 11-8. The final score of the match was 4-2.
Saleem, expressed his despair after the match and said, “The players can’t show up at the world championship and win without a coach.”
Asim lost against Manuel Espinal from Dominican Republic, scoring 4-2. Ali Faisal lost in the group matches of the championship and was not able to reach the second round of the qualifiers.
Shabnam Bilal lost in the group matches to end her progress in the opening round of the qualification stage. She lost to straight sets in both matches of the group round. In her opening match, she faced defeat against Ana Mikova from Cyprus, scoring 4-0.
In the second match, she faced defeat against Aurore Dessaint from France again, in straight games.
Aisha Ansari also lost in straight sets in the group round against Rheann Chung, from Tripoli and Slovakian, Sona Hudecova. The only hope left for the Pakistani players was in the Mixed Doubles’ category.
Saleem, who won the group round, said, “You can’t expect us to winhttp://tribune.com.pk/story/165178/faisal-crashes-out-on-opening-day/the matches when we participate in only one international tournament every year, There are more than 2000 athletes participating from all over the world. The Pakistan Table Tennis Federation should understand that we need to play in international events.”
Shabnan and Asim ousted Mozaml Suliman and Eilaf Al Khatib from Sudan, in a three straight sets win 2-11, 3-11, 3-11. For Ali and Aisha, then beat John Cordue and Sarah Her-Lee from New Zealand, in three straight games 11-7, 11-8, 11-4.
The progress of Pakistani players in the Doubles’ category was ended by Lin Ju and Wu Xue from Dominican Republic, in straight games scoring 11-6, 11-7, 11-1 and 11-4. The journey for Pakistani players ended in the initial rounds of the championship.
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