India table tennis team assure medal

JAKARTA: The Indian men’s team did almost the unthinkable by beating fancied Japan 3-1 in the quarter-finals to assure the country its first-ever medal in table tennis in the history of the Asian Games here on Monday.

For India, it did not matter if Japan’s top three players were missing from the competition. “At the end of the day, it is an Asian Games medal. I never dreamt of it,” veteran A Sharath Kamal said.

Until Monday, India didn’t have a single medal in the sport which was introduced in the Games programme in 1958. The likes of China (61 gold), Japan (20) and South Korea (10) swept the medals for long time.

Word No 33 Sharath blanked world No 19 Kenta Matsudaira 11-8, 12-10, 11-8 in the only singles he needed to play. G Sathiyan, ranked 39, delivered on the big stage, winning both his singles matches against 28th ranked Jin Ueda and Matsudaira. He hammered Ueda in straight games and took four games to get the better of Matsudaira.

“We had come close to beating Japan in the 2017 Asian Championships. So it’s not as if it was completely unexpected. We were on the right track. We have a solid team now,” said multiple time CWG gold medallist Sharath.

Winning the quarter-finals against a strong opponent like Japan was a mighty feat, considering the team had played two pool matches against Macau and Vietnam earlier. The men had lost to Chinese Taipei 2-3 on Sunday to finish second in the group.

In women’s team event, India lost to Hong Kong 1-3 in the quarter-finals. They were too reliant on Manika Batra, who stunned world No 20 Lee Ho Ching in the opening singles. The 57th ranked Indian won 11-9, 11-9, 5-11, 11-6.