Asian TT: Creditable show by Indian men
The Indian doubles pairs of G. Sathiyan-sharath Kamal and Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar lost in the men’s doubles semifinals of the Asian table tennis championships in Doha.
Harmeet and Manav rallied from a two-game deficit but fell short as the Korean duo of Jong Woojin and Lim Jonghoon triumphed in five games 4-11,
6-11, 12-10, 11-9, 8-11. Sharath-sathiyan were outplayed by Yukiya Uda and Shunsuke Togami of Japan 11-5, 11-9, 13-11.
Down and out after being outplayed in the first two games, Harmeet-manav played like men possessed in the next two games. The third and fourth games went the distance which India won. The decider was evenly placed till 6-each. From there on, Jong and Lim increased the tempo and Lim unleashed some crucial backhand flicks. Uda and Togami were always on the attack-mode, seldom giving Sharath-sathiyan space and time to settle down.
The Indians did mount a fightback saving three game points from 6-10 in the second game and four game points from 7-10 & 10-11 in the third.
India ended its campaign in the championships with three bronze medals. One in the men’s team event and two in men's doubles. The Indian women’s team finished fifth.