Asian Table Tennis C'ship: Yashaswini-Harmeet win India's first mixed doubles medal in 72 years

Yashaswini Ghorpade and Harmeet Desai combined to win India's first mixed doubles medal in 72 years at the 2026 Asian Table Tennis Championships in Tashkent on Friday.

Ghorpade and Desai achieved the feat when they stormed into the semi-finals of the continental championship with a 3-2 win over South Korea.

Up against Park Ganghyeon and Lee Daeun, the Indian pair registered a come-from-behind 11-6, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-9 victory in a thrilling quarter-final battle which lasted over 42 minutes.

The quarter-final win pitted them against Japan's Sora Matsushima and Miwa Harimoto.

Ghorpade and Desai gave a good account of themselves but went down 9-11, 9-11, 8-11 in straight games to return with a bronze medal.

The last Indians to win a mixed doubles medal at the Asian Table Tennis Championships was the pair of Yatin Vyas and Meena Parande, who bagged a silver way back in 1954.

The Indian pair of Kalyanpur Jayant and Gool Nasikwala had won a gold medal two years prior during the inaugural Asian Table Tennis Championships in 1952.