Commonwealth Games 2022: Achanta Sharath Kamal strikes gold in men's singles final 14 years after winning last title
Liam Pitchford and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran picked up the men's singles silver and bronze medals respectively while Feng Tianwei and Zeng Jian dominated Australia's Lay Jian Fang and Jee Minhyung on their way to gold in the women's doubles competition in Birmingham, England.
Achanta Sharath Kamal of India defeated England's Liam Pitchford 4-1 to win the men's singles table tennis title at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games on Monday (8 August).
Kamal won 11-13, 11-7, 11-2, 11-6, 11-8.
Not 24 hours before, Pitchford had taken gold in the men's doubles final, but was unable to make it two-from-two after being outplayed by 40-year-old Sharath Kamal, who last won the Commonwealth title at Melbourne 2006.
India take gold and bronze in men's singles
The first game of the men's final saw the Indian on the front foot, taking a lead of two, only for the Englishman to match him. At 10-all deuce Sharath Kamal took the advantage to go up to 11 but Pitchford nudged ahead to take the game 13-11.
Sharath Kamal then went up a gear. He took the next game 11-7 before then emphatically surging ahead with an 11-2 result in the third game.
Pitchford tried to impose himself after the Indian paddler once more sped ahead, this time to a 6-1 lead. And he did to some effect. He brought into the score-line deficit back to 6-5.
But Sharath Kamal rose again leaving Pitchford in the dust. He took the fourth game 11-6.
There was late drama in the fifth and final game of the match as Pitchford's shot at was deemed to have caught Sharath Kamal on the shirt meaning the Englishman received a crucial point. But it didn't little to alter the course of the final result.
The Indian jumped on his match-point to take the gold medal and his second title in 14 years.
"The best two weeks of my 40 years of life. It can't get better," the newly minted champion said after receiving his medal.
"Yesterday's game (semifinal) against Paul [Drinkhall] was harder. Against Pitchford today the first two sets, after that, I felt like I had the match in my hands. But he was still coming back.
"If you see the last set, I was so excited. I was almost thinking about how to celebrate the win and he was just coming back at me."
In the men's bronze medal match India's Sathiyan Gnanasekaran survived a stunning three-game comeback to beat Team England's Paul Drinkhall 4-3 (11-9, 11-3, 11-5, 8-11, 9-11, 10-12, 11-9).
The first game was close. The 32-year-old paddler from Middlesborough saved one match point before Gnanasekaran, ranked 35 in the world, drew the unforced error out of the Englishman to take the first set 9-11.
From there, the Indian was in ascendancy, storming the second and third sets 11-3, 11-5. But just when it all looked to be going well for 29-year-old Drinkhall rallied back, drawing on the volume of the home crowd to find his rhythm and draw things back to level heading into the final game.
Like he had started the match, Drinkhall began the final game going down 6-1. But once more the Englishman fought back, turning to the audience each winning point for their approval. All tied up at 9-9, Gnanasekaran saved the best until last, taking the last two points to win the match and the bronze.
"That was really, really hard work. I cruised [ in the match and credit to Paul, he started to play much better and I became a little passive," Gnanasekaran said afterwards.
"I had so many chances, I would have been sleepless for a week if I had lost that. I so, so badly wanted this singles medal. It's a match I will never forget."
Commonwealth Games 2022: Feng Tianwei and Zeng Jian victorious in women's doubles
Prior to the men's singles competition, the women's doubles gold and bronze matches took place.
Singapore's Feng Tianwei and Zeng Jian were unapologetic in their quest for gold crushing their Australian competition, six-times Commonwealth Games paddler Lay Jian Feng and 35-year-old Jee Minhyung, 3-0 (11-1, 11-8, 11-8).
The victory means that world No 13 Feng played a hand all three of Singapore's gold medals at the NEC's Hall 3. She was also victorious in the women's singles and team events.
The third-place prize went to Charlotte Carey and Anna Hursey of Team Wales after they defeated other Singaporean pair Wong Xin Ru and Zhou Jingyi 3-1 (16-14, 14-12, 9-11, 12-10).
"I'm in tears, I'm so happy," Carey said afterwards. "The medal means everything. It has given us such a boost [to know] that we can definitely do it. Next time we'll be there, hopefully in that situation again, and come back with some more medals."
"We could easily have lost the first two sets," Hursey added. "But we got through it. We both played absolutely amazing. We were both nervous but we got through it in the end."