Table Tennis
World Table Tennis Team C'Ships: Indian men's team opens campaign with 3-0 win over Chile
Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai and Sathiyan won their respective matches in straight games to hand out Chile a 3-0 defeat in their opening match of the World Table Tennis Team Championships in South Korea.
FILE PHOTO: Harmeet Desai, Achanta Sharath Kamal and G Sathiyan won their respective matches against Chile on February 17 at the World TT Team Championships.
The Indian men's team registered a comfortable 3-0 win in its opening match against Chile at the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Busan, South Korea, on Saturday.
Playing the opening match of the contest, Achanta Sharath Kamal warmed up with an 11-5, 11-8, 11-8 win over Burgos Nicolas to give India a 1-0 lead.
Harmeet Desai doubled up India's lead without dropping a game against Gomez Gustavo. Harmeet won the match 11-8, 11-7, 11-6.
Playing the third match of the tie, G Sathiyan also won his match against Olivares Felipe in three games (12-10, 11-8, 11-8).
India will play Poland on Sunday. The match is expected to start at 9:30 PM Indian Standard Time.
On Friday, the Indian women's team suffered a 2-3 defeat against China, but Ayhika Mukherjee and Sreeja Akula registered two stunning wins over world no. 1 Sun Yingsha and world no. 2 Wang Yidi.
But as Manika Batra lost two of her matches, and Ayhika lost her second women's singles match, India could not pull off an upset. However, India became the first team to claim two wins against China at any team event since 2010.
Notably, quarterfinalists in both the men’s and women’s sections will secure a ticket to Paris, marking India's pathway to the 2024 Summer Olympics. Additionally, teams qualifying for the Olympics are assured of two singles places.
