Pakistan players suffer at world event

Men’s table tennis team loses three matches on 2nd day.

KARACHI: After failing to appear in their matches on the opening day, Pakistan players suffered losses on the second as the World Table Tennis Championships continued in Paris.

The four-member Pakistan squad faced embarrassment on the opening day as they failed to arrive at the venue on time, stating that their connecting flight to Paris from Dubai was delayed.

However, the team failed to put up a meaningful performance when it finally did appear in its matches with the men’s squad losing their respective games.

While Pakistan requested the organisers to reschedule their matches, the appeal was rejected, according to Pakistan Table Tennis Federation (PTTF) Vice-President Saleem Ahmed.

“It was unfortunate that the flight delay cost our players their opening matches,” Ahmed told The Express Tribune. “It’s embarrassing but in international tournaments we can’t expect the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) to make changes in the schedule.”

However, Pakistan player Yasir Bhatti said the team still had a good chance of progressing to the main round.

“We had a tough day and it’s not easy to win a match after a very tiring journey,” said Bhatti. “But we can’t afford to lose this opportunity because players are bearing all the expenses. I don’t want to waste my money by not playing the remaining matches. I still believe we have a good chance in the event.”

On the second day, Bhatti lost to Denmark’s Kasper Sternberg 4-0 (11-4, 11-6, 11-7, 11-4). Bilal Yaseen was defeated by Korea’s Kyungmin Kim 4-0 (11-3, 11-6, 11-4, 11-3) and Saleem Abbas was outplayed by Romania’s Hunor Szocs 4-0 (11-5, 11-9, 11-4, 11-6).

However, there was slightly good news in the women’s category as the country’s lone female player at the event, Shabnam Bilal, defeated Armenia’s Tamar Aghayan 4-0 (11-7, 14-12, 11-7, 12-10), but lost to Brazil’s Jessica  Yamada 4-0 (11-6, 11-2, 11-7, 11-7) in the women’s singles pre-qualifying round.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2013.