Asian Table Tennis C'Ships 2023: Indian men's team assured of medal, marches towards Olympic quota

Indian men's team cruised to the semifinals, while the women's team was knocked out of the 26th ITTF-Asian Table Tennis Championships 2023 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on Monday.

The men's team, featuring Achanta Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai, pummeled Singapore 3-0 to confirm its semifinal berth. This victory also assured India of a medal. Overall, this is India's fifth medal in the championships since 1972. India won four bronze medals earlier - three of them won by the Indian men at the last edition in 2021.

The men's team will next look to secure a quota for the Paris Olympics by winning the semifinal and final of this ongoing tournament, an Olympic qualifier. Their next match will be against Taipei on Wednesday morning.

Playing the first match of the tie on Monday morning, Sharath Kamal won the first set 11-1 but faced tough resistance from Izaac Quek in the next. With Izaac drawing level in the second set 12-10, Sharath Kamal would regain his lead in the third 11-8. Izaac would draw level again at 13-11, but Sharath Kamal would maintain his composure to win the deciding set 14-12.

In the second match of the tie, Sathiyan played an all-out game against Yew En Koen Pang and won 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 12-10).

Harmeet, too, defeated Zhe Yu Clarence Chew 3-0 (11-9, 11-4, 11-6) in the third match of the tie to confirm India's place in the semifinals.

Following Monday's win, the men's team will also be in contention for a Paris Olympics quota place. But for that, it will need to beat Chinese Taipei to qualify for the final, where a mighty opponent like China will await India. Only the winner of the tournament will be eligible to seal a quota place for the 2024 Olympic Games.

Women's team no match for Japan

The Indian women's team, however, went down to Japan 0-3 after Ayhika Mukherjee, Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee lost their respective matches in the quarterfinal tie.

Ayhika, playing the first match of the quarterfinal, lost 0-3 (7-11, 13-15, 8-11) against Mima Ito. Batra, however, managed to take a game off against Hina Hayata in a 1-3 loss (7-11, 9-11, 11-9, 3-11).

With India already 0-2 down, Miu Hirano handed Sutirtha an identical 3-1 defeat to wrap up the tie as Japan cruised to the semifinals.

Sutirtha started the match on a positive note, winning the first set 11-7, but lost the next three 4-11, 6-11, 5-11 in a lop-sided battle.