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The Indian men's Table Tennis team of Achanta Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar suffered a 0-3 loss against China in the Round of 16 clash at the Paris Olympics 2024. The Indian women's side of Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath was in action, yesterday on August 5 where they took down Romania 3-2 to qualify for the quarterfinal stage at the South Paris Arena.
Coming back to the men's pre-quarterfinal clash, the Indian pair of Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar were demolished by China's Ma Long and Wang Chuqin in the first match. The Chinese pair showed off their dominance as they won the first two games 11-2 and 11-3 before taking Game 3 11-5 to take a 1-0 lead.
In Match 2, India's Sharath Kamal took on the defending Olympic gold medalist Fan Zhendong and stunningly took Game 1 with an 11-9 margin. But this was India's only win in the second match as Zhendong zoomed through the clash to register a quick 2-1 victory.
The third match of the pre-quarterfinal saw Manav Thakkar face world number one Wang Chuqin. The Indian put up a valiant fight as he pushed Chuqin to the limit as the scores were tied at 9-9 before the World Number took Game 1 11-9. Thakkar flattered in Game 2 to suffer an 11-6 defeat but put up na incredible fight before losing their Game 3 11-9. With Thakkar's loss, India suffered a 0-3 loss against China and failed to reach the quarterfinal.
