Asian TT C’ships: Indian Men’s Team Takes Bronze After Losing To Taipei In Semifinal

Achanta Sharath Kamal: The Indian men’s table tennis team settled with a bronze medal, concluding their Asian Championships campaign with a semifinal loss to Chinese Taipei, here on Wednesday.The third-seeded men’s team of Achanta Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai, and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran suffered a 0-3 loss to Chinese Taipei to end their campaign in third place. In the first rubber, ace paddler Sharath lost 6-11, 6-11, 9-11 to Chuang Chih-Yuan while Sathiyan suffered 5-11, 6-11, 10-12 loss at the hands of Lin Yun-Ju in the second tie. In the third rubber, Harmeet fought to give India an upper hand but eventually lost 6-11, 7-11, 11-7, 9-11 to Kao Cheng-Jui. Elsewhere, the women’s team of Manika Batra, Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee finished sixth after losing 0-3 to Thailand in the in a 5-6 positions match on Wednesday. The Indian women beat Singapore 3-2 in a 5-8 positions match before going to Thailand in the fifth-position showdown. The women’s team had lost 0-3 to Japan in their quarterfinal encounter on Monday. In the mixed doubles, Sathiyan and Manika, after receiving a bye in the round of 64, went down 2-3 (11-7, 10-12, 11-6, 8-11, 9-11) in the round of 32 to Thai pair, Phakpoom Sanguansin and Orawan Paranang. During the match, Manika seemed to have twisted her ankle and needed a 10-minute medical attention. But the Indian duo continued but lost. Another mixed pair, Harmeet Desai and Sreeja Akula, followed suit and lost to the top-seeded Japanese pair of Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata 0-3 (6-11, 7-11, 8-11) in another round of 32 match. In their first round, the Indian duo beat the Malaysian pair of Shen Qi Wong and Xin Ai Tee 3-1 (11-7, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9).