Qatar Open: Sharath, Poulomi in main draw

Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal and new woman national champion Poulomi Ghatak were among four Indian paddlers who have qualified for the main draw of Pro Tour Qatar Open in Doha.

World number 73, Sharath was the only Indian to qualify in men's singles category, while the other women are former national champion Mouma Das and Madhurika Patkar.

Sharath, who recently defended national singles title in Guwahati, continued his good form and won both the matches in the qualifying round against Aleksander Kuchuk (4-1) and Russian Viacheslav Burov (4-3) on Thursday.

He now takes on Weixing Chen of Austria in first round of the main draw.

Poulomi overcame Russian Olga Baranove 4-0 in qualifying stage and now plays Tianwei Feng of Singapore, while her doubles partner Mouma will lock horn with Huajun Jiang of Hong Kong in the first round. She beat Singaporean Kai Zena Sim 4-0.

Madhurika, who defeated Ganna Gaponova of Ukraine 4-2 in the qualifying stage, now takes on Chinese Shiwen Liu in the main draw.

All the 18 other Indians, including recently-dethroned woman national champion Kumaresan Shamini, failed to qualify for the main round of the tournament.