Indian men’s TT team knocked out of Paris Olympics

The Indian men’s table tennis team, comprising Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar, was knocked out of the Paris 2024 Olympics after losing to top-seeds China in the round of 16 on Tuesday.

India, seeded 14th, went down 0-3 to the defending champions in a best-of-five encounter.

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In the men’s doubles encounter first up, Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar lost to five-time Olympic gold medallist Ma Long and world No. 1 singles paddler Wang Chuqin 3-0 (11-2, 11-3, 11-7).

Commonwealth Games champion Sharath Kamal, India’s top-ranked singles player at world No. 41, played the second match of the tie against world No. 2 singles player Fan Zhendong.

Sharath won the first game but eventually lost the contest 3-1 (11-9, 7-11, 7-11, 5-11). Zhendong won the men’s singles gold medal at Paris 2024.

Manav Thakkar, world No. 59, gave a good account of himself against Wang Chuqin in the do-or-die contest but the quality of the Chinese player proved to be class apart and Thakkar went down 3-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-9).

Earlier at Paris 2024, Harmeet Desai and Sharath Kamal were eliminated in the first round of the men’s singles tournament. Manav Thakkar only competed in the team event.

Meanwhile, the Indian women’s table tennis 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 quarter-finals on Wednesday.