The Indian males’s and ladies’s group got here up brief in the pre-quarterfinals of the World Table Tennis Championships on Wednesday however their efficiency in all chance will likely be sufficient to ship them to the Paris Olympics.
Manika Batra-led girls’s group misplaced 1-3 to Chinese Taipei in the spherical of 16 whereas the boys had been blown away by South Korea for the second time in the competitors, shedding 0-3.
The occasion supplied Olympic quotas to the quarterfinalists however the women and men from India are more likely to minimize by their world rankings.
The remaining announcement will likely be made on March 5 after together with the factors from the World Championships.
The girls’s group is at present ranked seventeenth and the boys’s fifteenth.
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“In all likelihood, the men and women have qualified for the Olympics but we will have to wait till March for the official announcement,” stated a TTFI official. In the ladies’s pre-quarterfinal, Manika put India forward with a tense 11-8, 8-11, 4-11, 11-9, 11-9 win over Taipei’s Chen Szu-Yu.
Sreeja Akula was blanked by world quantity 10 Cheng I-Ching 11-6, 11-9, 11-5 in the second singles earlier than Ayhika Mukherjee couldn’t match the facility of Li Yu-Jhun, shedding 10-12, 13-15, 11-9, 2-11.
In her second singles, thirty sixth ranked Manika tried her greatest in opposition to Cheng, an opponent she surprised final yr, however on this event the world quantity 10 got here properly ready to tackle the Indian who makes use of the lengthy pimpled rubber on the backhand. Manika misplaced 10-12, 11-5, 9-11, 5-11.
The Indian males’s group couldn’t do a lot in opposition to the may of Koreans. Harmeet Desai and Sharath Kamal managed to take a recreation off Jang Woojin and Lim Jonghoon respectively earlier than G Sathiyan was blanked by Lee Sang Su.
Earlier on Wednesday, Harmeet Desai received the decisive fifth rubber in opposition to Kazakhstan to steer the Indian males’s group to pre-quarterfinals whereas the ladies’s group strolled into the final-16 stage with a simple 3-0 victory over Italy.
Harmeet misplaced the opening match to Kirill Gerassimenko 9-11, 12-10, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8 earlier than senior teammate and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Sharath Kamal introduced India on stage phrases with a come-from-behind victory over Alan Kurmangaliyev.
The age-defying 41-yr-outdated Sharath dug deep into his reserves after being two video games down to show the tide in opposition to his Kazakh opponent.
Sharath lastly received 6-11, 7-11, 11-7, 13-11, 11-9.
G. Sathiyan then gave India a 2-1 lead after a minor lapse of focus in the second recreation, lastly notching up a simple 3-1 victory.
The two-time CWG gold medallist in group occasion, Sathiyan received the opening recreation 11-6 however misplaced the following recreation tamely 5-11. He recovered from the lapse to win the final two recreation 11-2, 11-7, giving his opponent completely no probability, as his high spin earned him the utmost factors.
Sharath although misplaced his second singles match to Gerassimenko 4-11, 9-11, 11-6, 7-11) as Kazakhstan levelled the scores.
Harmeet didn’t present any indicators of nerves in the decider and received 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 11-7.
In the ladies’s part, Sreeja defeated Nikoleta Stefanova 12-10, 11-6, 11-8, whereas Manika Batra crushed Giorgia Piccolin 12-10, 11-6, 11-5.
Ayhika sealed the tie with a 15-13, 11-9, 13-15, 11-8 win over Gaia Monfardini.
(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – PTI)
