Asian Table Tennis LIVE – Indian Men in Semi-Finals: Making most of China’s absence, India were on Wednesday assured of their maiden medal in the Asian Table Tennis Championships after beating Iran 3-1 in the quarterfinals here. Sharath Kamal did the star-act for India by winning both his singles matches – Follow Asian Table Tennis LIVE Updates on InsideSport.co
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The Indians will take on the winners of the South Korea versus Hong Kong match on Friday. India, who had made it to the Champions Division after their stellar showing in the last edition, were also handed a direct entry into the eight-team main draw of the ITTF-ATTU joint event.
Asian Table Tennis LIVE: Great news for Indian Table Tennis, Sharath Kamal led Indian Men’s team assured of maiden Medal: Follow Live Updates
Asian Table Tennis LIVE – Indian Men in Semi-Finals: Ace paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal led the charge in the win against Iran. Sharath, who opened the first match of the rubber, downed Nima Alamiyan 11-9, 6-11, 11-9, 11-5 to put India 1-0 up.
Though the world No. 33 began well, he dropped the next before picking up steam to roll past Alamiyan. In the next tie, G Sathiyan, ranked No. 38 in the world, beat Noshad Alamiyan (world No. 74) 11-7, 11-6, 6-11, 11-6.
But in the following rubber, Harmeet Desai lost to Amir Hossein Hodaei 8-11, 7-11, 11-8, 14-12, 7-11. The fiercely-fought match saw fortunes fluctuating from one extreme to another but the Iranian held on to his nerves to reduce the margin.
Indian Men in Semi-Finals: However, in his reverse singles, Sharath sealed the fate of Iran, beating Noshad 11-8, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9 to ensure India its first medal.