![\"images\"](\"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/images.jpg\")
New Delhi: In a rare feat, India’s men paddlers posted a 3-2 come-from-behind win over hosts Thailand to enter the champion division of the Asian Table Tennis Championships, only to lose to top-seed Chinese 3-0 in the quarterfinals at Pattaya (Thailand) today.<\/p>\n
Now the Indians will have to meet Singapore next in 5-8 position matches tomorrowwhile Iran, who lost 0-3 to Japan in the quarters, will play Hong Kong. The winners of the two matches play 5-6 positions and losers’ 7-8 ties. Iran had posted a 3-2 win over North Korea in first division.<\/p>\n
After all their hard work in the first division, it was a huge task against the champion side China that has the Olympic and world champions in their ranks and the Indians went down without a whimper. Xu Zin beat Harmeet Desai 11-9, 11-9, 11-3, Zhang Jike outsmarted G. Sathiyan 11-5, 11-3, 11-4 and Fan Zhendong accounted for Soumyajit Ghosh 11-6, 11-7, 11-8.<\/p>\n
In the morning, the Indian men comfortably beat Uzbekistan 3-0 with Harmeet Desai beating Zokhid Kenjaev 3-0, Soumyajit Ghosh accounting for Elmurod Holikov 3-0 and G. Sathiyan following it up with straight games win over Gennadiy Levchenko.<\/p>\n
But they had a major hurdle in Thailand with the entire crowd backing and as it turned out, both Gosh and Sharath Kamal, who was playing his first match in five months, started on a dreadful note possible, giving no hope to India.<\/p>\n
Padasak Tanviriyavechakul began on a whirlwind fashion against Ghosh winning the first two games before Ghosh won the third. But a fluent Padasak was way ahead of the Indian as the former won 11-6, 1-9, 8-11, 11-4. All the pressure was on Sharath, the top-ranked Indian in the world at No. 52, who next took on Pattaratom Passara. It was a struggle for supremacy as Sharath won one and lost one as at the end of the fourth game it was 2-2. In the decider, Passara utilized the chances well and won 7-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7.<\/p>\n
From a no-win situation, Harmeet Desai brought India back in the match when he beat Chanakam Udomsilp 11-7, 11-9, 5-11, 11-9. This gave a flicker of hope as Sharath downed the top Thai player, Padasak in extended points game of 13-11, 12-10, 10-12, 14-12. Then it was left to Ghosh to take their No. 2 player, Passara. And the national champion won the decider 11-8, 11-9, 11-6, particularly the last game with a lot to spare.<\/p>\n
But India’s women team was not as lucky as they went down to hosts in the semifinals 3-0 and will now play the 9-10 position match tomorrow against the Philippines, who lost to North Korea 0-3.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the morning, Nanthana Komwong gave Thailand the perfect start by beating Mouma Das (11-9, 11-4, 13-11), she was followed by Suthasini Sawettabut who accounted for Manika Batra (10-12, 12-10, 14-12, 11-5), before Orawan Paranang brought matters to a conclusion by overcoming Ankita Das (11-8, 11-6, 7-11, 11-7).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi: In a rare feat, India’s men paddlers posted a 3-2 come-from-behind win over hosts Thailand to enter the champion division of the Asian Table Tennis Championships, only to lose to top-seed Chinese 3-0 in the quarterfinals at Pattaya (Thailand) today.<\/p>\n
Now the Indians will have to meet Singapore next in 5-8 position matches tomorrowwhile Iran, who lost 0-3 to Japan in the quarters, will play Hong Kong. The winners of the two matches play 5-6 positions and losers’ 7-8 ties. Iran had posted a 3-2 win over North Korea in first division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-table-tennis-table-tennis"],"yoast_head":"\n