Baboor loses opening singles match

Former national champion Chetan Baboor suffered a major setback in his bid to qualify for the main round as he lost his opening Group 'C' table tennis league match against Petr Korbel of the Czech Republic on Sunday morning.

The 27-year-old, playing in his third successive Olympics, won the first game but failed to capitalise on the lead and lost the next three.

Petr, a losing semi-finalist at the Atlanta Olympics, won 13-21, 21-17, 21-16, 21-14 in 36 minutes.

Chetan along with partner Raman Subramanyan had lost the doubles league match on Saturday.

The Indian's 'hand-shake' technique did help him win the first game in which he led troughout after establishing an 8-0 lead.

The Czech, however, was a different player after losing the first game. He came back strongly and simply overwhelmed the Indian.

Though the scores ran close in the second game, till 9-6 in Chetan's favour, Petr called the shots thereafter and led 11-9, 13-12, 18-17 before winning 21-17.

Petr controlled the third game and established leads of 8-7, 13-12, 16-14, 20-15 before winning at 21-17.

The fourth game was simply a wash-out for the Indian as the Petr turned on the heat. He was up 9-6, 12-8, 14-11, 18-12 before winning at 14.

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