Doha: Two Indian men’s pairs – Sharath Kamal Achanta and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, and Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar – earned bronze medals at the ITTF-ATTU Asian Table Tennis Championships here on Monday.
In the first semi-final, the eighth-seeded Harmeet and Manav stretched fifth-seeded South Koreans Woojin Jang and Jonghoon Lim before going down by a scoreline of 11-4, 11-6, 10-12, 9-11, 8-11 in 44 minutes.
In the other last-four stage contest, sixth seeds Sharath and Sathiyan lost 5-11, 9-11, 11-13 to Yukiya Uda and Shunsuke Togami in 33 minutes.
It is to be remembered that both losing semi-finalists secure a bronze medal each. Despite the twin losses on Monday, the Indian men have made history at the continental event by bagging three medals – all bronze.