World Table Tennis C'ships: Indian men's team goes down to Korea in pre-quarterfinals

The Indian men's table tennis team went down 0-3 to mighty Korea in the pre-quarterfinals of the World Table Tennis Team Championships in Busan on Wednesday.

Harmeet Desai and Sharath Kamal managed to take a game each off Jang Woojin and Lim Jonghoon respectively before Lee Sang Su blanked G Sathiyan.

This was India's second consecutive defeat to Korea in the Championships. Earlier, India succumbed to a 0-3 defeat to the host in the group stage.

This loss means India failed to grab the 2024 Olympics berth on offer in the quarter-final for the team and two singles players.

However, both the Indian women's and men's teams are likely to make the cut through their world rankings after losing in the pre-quarterfinals. The final update on the team rankings will be updated on March 5, with the men's team ranked 15th and the women's team 17th. Only the teams in the top 16 will qualify for the Paris Olympics.

"In all likelihood, the men and women have qualified for the Olympics but we will have to wait till March for the official announcement," said a Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) official.

Earlier in the day, the Indian men's team defeated Kazakhstan in Round of 32 as Harmeet Desai won the decisive fifth rubber against Kazakhstan to steer the team to the pre-quarterfinals.

In the women's pre-quarters, the Indian team lost 1-3 against Chinese Taipei with Manika Batra winning the only match for India.