Paris Olympics: Indian men's TT team bows out with loss to China in opener

Paris, Aug 6 (IANS) The Indian men’s table tennis team of Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar crashed out of the Paris 2024 Olympics after losing to the top-seeded Chinese team in the Round of 16 here on Tuesday. In a best-of-five encounters match, the 14th-seeded Indian team lost 0-3 to the reigning champion China.

First up, in the men's doubles match, world No. 1 singles table tennis player Wang Chuqin and five-time Olympic gold medallist Ma Long defeated Harmeet and Manav 3-0 (11-2, 11-3, 11-7).

Commonwealth Games champion and India’s top-ranked singles player at world No. 41 Sharath Kamal played the second match of the tie against world No.2 singles player Fan Zhendong, who won the men’s singles gold medal in Paris 2024.

Sharath won the first game but eventually lost the contest 1-3 (11-9, 7-11, 7-11, 5-11). Zhendong.

In the match that could have made India's day, world No. 59 Manav played well against Wang Chuqin, but the Chinese player's skill level was simply unmatched, as Thakkar lost 0-3 (11-9, 11-6, 11-9).

Earlier, Harmeet and Sharath were eliminated in the first round of the men’s singles events. Manav, on the other hand, only competed in the team event.

The Indian women’s team of Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath, seeded 11th, stunned fourth-seeded Romania 3-2 in their Round of 16 tie on Monday.

The Indian trio will take on the winner of the match between the USA and Germany in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

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