Defending champion Achanta Sharath Kamal stormed into the men's singles semi-finals after a cakewalk against Cai Xiao Li of Singapore in the 17^th the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships in Jaipur on Monday.

The Chennai paddler faced little resistance from Li, winning 11-9, 10-12, 11-3, 11-7, 11-4.

Earlier in the day he beat Andrew Roshtom of England [Images].

In the women's section, however, there was heartbreak in store for the hosts with Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das crashing out of the quarter-finals.

Mouma lost 11-5, 11-6, 11-4, 11-5 to Lee Wei Bee, while Poulomi went down to second seed Sun Bei Bei 11-7, 11-4, 11-4, 11-9 of Singapore.

In another women's singles quarter-final, Yue Gu Wang of Singapore beat Stephannie Xu Sang of Australia 11-8, 11-6, 11-4, 11-4.

There was good news for India in the women's doubles, where Vishaka Vijay and Shusmita Roy stormed into the semi-finals riding on two upset victories.

Second seed Miao Miao and Stephanie Xu Sang of Australia bore the brunt of the Indian pair in pre-quarter-finals and then turned tables on the fifth seed Nigerian combination of Cecilia Offiong and Edem Offiong to reserve an unexpected place in the last four.

Vijay and Roy carved out an 8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 13-11 win over the Australian pair in the pre-quarter-finals. They continued their fantastic job by winning a thrilling encounter against Cecilia Offiong and Edem Offiong of Nigeria, winning 6-11, 12-10, 11-5, 7-11, 11-9.

They will hope that their brilliant run continues against the fourth seed pair of Mo Zhang and Sar Yeun of Canada in the semi-finals.

In the men's doubles, Shubhajit Saha and Anirban Nandi also reached the last four stage, surpassing teammates Ranbir Das and Shibaji Dutta 11-9, 12-10, 11-5.

For Sharath, clearing the semi-finals will be an uphill task, as he meets the formidable Gao Ning of Singapore, the top seed, who thrashed him in the final of the Indian Open few months back in Delhi.

Gao Ning thrashed Zhilong Brad Chen of New Zealand 11-9, 11-6, 11-7, 12-10.

In the other semi-final, second seed Yang Zi will take on Nosiru Kazeem of Nigeria.

Second seed Yang Zi, who was stretched to limit, was in trouble once again but managed to scrape through with a 10-12, 8-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-2, 9-11, 11-2 win over Gavin Rumgay of Scotland.

Sharath beat Andrew Roshtom of England in the morning but looked a bit out of sorts in the doubles first round match with Soumyadeep Roy where India suffered an unexpected first round loss to the Malaysian pair of Mohd Shakirin and Kian Beng Chai 11-9, 11-9, 11-9.

Soumyadeep and Shubhajit Saha earlier bowed out of the championship.

Soumyadeep's poor form caught up with him as he lost an advantageous position and went down 6-11, 9-11, 12-10, 13-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-9.

Saha lost to Commonwealth Games silver medallist William Henzell of Australia 11-7, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6, 13-11.

A Amalraj, who created an upset in the first round on Sunday, also bowed out after losing to Zhilong Brad of New Zealand 12-10, 11-6, 11-5, 5-11, 8-11, 11-8.

After the disheartening loss in doubles, Sharath came out

strongly against Li. The Singapore paddler has been a sort of milestone for Sharath's career road as the duo have clashed on seven occasions. Sharath had got the better Li six times but this win was the more convincing.

"The first game I lost today because I played very badly and missed a lot but then I picked myself up. It was a very satisfactory win.

"My placements were very good and top spin was working excellent. You could have placed a coin and I would have hit, it was so accurate today," Sharath said.

But the points that drew tremendous applause from the small crowd was Sharath's control with the high balls that he managed to keep on the table from far off and forced Li to make a mistake.

After one game each Sharath was in complete control of the match.

In the men's doubles, Ranbir Das and Shibaji Dutta reached the last eight stage after a 11-7, 6-11, 11-4, 11-8 win over Zhillong Brad and Simon Wallace of New Zealand.

Jitender Kumar and Amalraj trounced Pierre Luc Hinse and Ling Kun Yang of Canada.