World Table Tennis C'Ships: Indian men's and women's teams through to Round of 32

The Indian men's and women's table tennis teams sealed their places in the knockout stage of the World Table Tennis Team Championships with a win over New Zealand and Spain in the respective final group-stage fixtures at the World Table Tennis Team Championships in Busan, South Korea, on Tuesday.

The women's team led by Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula and Ayhika Mukherjee pulled off a great comeback victory after trailing 0-2, with Sreeja Akula and Manika Batra losing their matches to Maria Xiao and Sofia-Xuan Zhang, respectively.

The team didn't lose their hopes though and held on to their composure to make a stunning comeback in the tie winning the next three matches on the trot to book their place in the knockout stage with a second-place finish in the group stage behind China.

It was Ayhika Mukherjee who brought India back into the tie with a victory over Elvira Red. Thereafter, Manika and Sreeja won their matches in their respective second outings in the tie to propel India to a 3-2 win.

Playing the first match of the tie, Sreeja Akula suffered a 9-11, 11-9, 11-13, 4-11 defeat against the attacking forward drives of Maria.

India's no. 1 Manika lost her match against Xuan Zhang in a hard-fought contest (11-13, 11-6, 11-8, 9-11, 7-11) despite having few golden opportunities to close the match in the fourth game where she was leading 9-7, but then she made a service error that cost her the game and eventually the match.

When Spain looked poised for a clean sweep, Ayhika stood out with an 11-8, 11-13, 11-, 9-11, 11-4 win over Elvira with her traditional deceptive play and service points.

Ayhika's win instilled a sense of confidence in the team, with Sreeja and Manika amending their defeats in their earlier matches with their attacking style of play.

While Manika beat Maria 11-9, 11-2, 11-4 to level the score 2-2 for India, Sreeja got the better of Xuan Zhang 11-6, 11-13, 11-6, 11-3.

With the Indian women's team finishing second in the group stage, they will play a comparatively easier opponent in Italy, who finished third in their group. If India wins this tie, they will be up against Chinese Taipei in the Round of 16. There, the national women's team will be up for a place in the quarterfinals alongside a coveted team quota for the Paris Olympics.

The India men's team blanked New Zealand 3-0

Meanwhile, the Indian men's team, coming back from two back-to-back losses in the last two fixtures, took a comfortable 3-0 win over New Zealand, with Harmeet Desai, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manush Shah winning their matches.

Harmeet opened the account with a comfortable 11-5, 11-1, 11-6 win over Timothy Choi to give India a 1-0 lead.

Sathiyan carried forward the momentum and took an easy 11-3, 11-7, 11-6 victory over Alfred Dela Pana to double up India's lead in the tie.

In the third match of the tie, Manush was looking a little uncomfortable at the start, but he made a good comeback after losing the first two games to complete India's 3-0 win with a 10-12, 6-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-6) win against Maxwell Henderson.

The Indian men's team will face Kazakhstan in the knockout round finishing third behind South Korea and Poland.