Credit: Twitter
Indian men’s table tennis team lost their quarter-final tie against South Korea by 3-0, to bow out of the competition on September 24, Sunday. At the Gongshu Canal Sports Park Gymnasium in Hangzhou, Team India, who went into the round of 8 tie without losing a match in the tournament, were no match to their South Korean counterparts, succumbing to a tough defeat in the process.
Follow: Asian Games Medal Tally 2023
The signs of a long day at the table tennis event were evident for Team India the moment Harmeet Rajul Desai fell in three straight games against AN Jaehyun by 9-11, 8-11, and 9-11. In the second match of the day, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, who has been quite impressive for the Indians in the competition, faced up against Park Ganghyeon.
These two played out an epic five-game thriller, in which the Korean table tennis player made a comeback to put his team in a 2-0 lead in the tie. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran won the first two games, before losing the next three to Park Ganghyeon, with the scoreline 12-10, 11-5, 7-11, 8-11, and 6-11.
Achanta Sharath Kamal, who made a comeback of his own against Kazakhstan earlier in the day in his round of 16 match, couldn’t manage to repeat his feat against OH Junsung of South Korea at the Gongshu Canal Sports Park Gymnasium. He lost by 11-2, 9-11, 1-11, 11-2, and 10-12, which meant that Team India got knocked out of the men’s table tennis team event in the quarter-final stage.
