Nagpya, Sept 23:
India’s table tennis campaign at the Asian Games ended without a team medal after both the men’s and women’s teams suffered defeats in the knockout stages on Tuesday.
The women’s team, which had earlier edged Thailand 3-2, went down 0-3 to North Korea in the quarterfinals. Sreeja Akula, Yashaswini Ghorpade and Diya Chitale were all beaten in straight games.
Sreeja, who had played a key role in India’s win over Thailand, struggled to reproduce that performance against North Korea. She lost 7-11, 6-11, 5-11 to Kum Yong Kim.
The men’s team had already been knocked out after losing to South Korea. Harmeet Desai started strongly against Jang Woo-jin, winning the opening game 11-8, but the Korean fought back to win the next three games 11-7, 11-8 and 11-9.
Manush Shah then took on Oh Jungsung. After losing the first game 4-11, Manush recovered to win the next two and forced a decider after taking the fourth 13-11. Oh, however, held his nerve to win the decider 11-6.
India needed Manav Thakkar to win to stay alive in the tie. He lost the first two games 10-12, 6-11 against An Jaeh-yun, and although he took the third 11-7, the Korean closed out the match 12-10.
The team events therefore ended without a medal for India, although attention will now turn to the individual and doubles competitions at the Games.