The Indian men’s table tennis team secured a bronze medal in the Asian Table Tennis Championships 2023. The team comprising Harmeet Desai, Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost to Chinese Taipei (0-3) in the semifinal of the tournament on Wednesday, 6th September.
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In a disappointing display, both veteran Sharath Kamal and the experienced G Sathiyan surrendered meekly to their higher-ranked opponents. Playing the first match of the tie at the Asian Table Tennis Championships semifinal, Sharath Kamal went down 6-11, 6-11, 9-11 to Chuang Chih-Yuan ranked 26th. Meanwhile Sathiyan went down 5-11, 6-11, 10-12 to world number 7 Lin Yun-Ju as the third-seeded Indian team trailed 0-2.
Playing to stay alive in the tie, Harmeet gave India some hope. The country’s highest-ranked player took a game off Kao Cheng-Jui. But the world number 33 sealed the tie for Chinese Taipei with a 11-6, 11-7, 7-11, 11-9 win. At the Asian Table Tennis Championships, the losing semifinalists are also awarded bronze medals.
The third seeded Indian men’s team had made their way into the semifinal after a 3-0 win over Singapore. This is the second successive time in the Asian Table Tennis Championships that India has secured a podium-finish. Two years ago, the Men’s team won bonze in the tournament held at Doha.
Earlier, the Indian women’s team, went down to Japan 0-3 in the quarterfinal. Ayhika Mukherjee, Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee lost their respective matches in the quarterfinal tie to bow out of the tournament.
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