India’s Amalraj Anthony had to settle for the silver medal as his impressive showing in the 2017 ITTF Challenge, Brazil Open, came to a halt in the final round of the competition. Amalraj, world ranked No. 147, and playing in his second straight Challenger finals, suffered a 1-4 defeat at the hands of top seed Hugo Calderano of Brazil, in the final encounter in Sao Paulo, according to information received, here, on Monday.
Amalraj Anthony
The Indian paddler made a promising start and put up a strong challenge initially as he shared the first two games with the higher ranked Calderano. But, thereafter, the Brazilian with his superior play took complete control of the match and won the next three games quite comfortably to race away to a 14-12, 9-11,11-7,11-7 and 11-5 triumph.
For second time in a week, it proved to be unsuccessful for Amlaraj as he was beaten by compatriot Soumyajit Ghosh in the Chile Open last Sunday.
Earlier in the semi-finals, the Indian paddler Amalraj overcame Bulgaria’s Philipp Floritz 4-3 in a long drawn encounter. The Indian prevailed at 6-11,6-11,11-9,11-9,8-11,11-9,11-9.
Results: Men’s singles – finals: Hugo Calderano (BRA) bt Amalraj Anthony (IND) 4-1 (14-12, 9-11,11-7,11-7, 11-5).