India’s men’s team went down 0-3 to Chinese Taipei in the semifinals of the 26th ITTF-Asian Table Tennis Championships at Pyeongchang to end their campaign with the bronze medal today.
With the return of Yun-Ju Lin, their top-ranked player in the world at No. 7, and playing his first match, Taipei needed a little over 82 minutes to dispose of India.
World No. 26 Chih-Yuan Chuang accounted for A. Sharath Kamal 11-6, 11-6, 11-9, and playing the second rubber, defeated G. Sathiyan 11-5, 11-6, 12-10. But Harmeet, though managed to take the third game against Chen-Jui Kao, lost in 32 minutes. Taipei’s world No. 33 beat Harmeet 11-6, 11-7, 7-11, 11-9.
Except for Manika Batra and Ayhika Mukherjee, who received first-round byes, the other women players–Akula Sreeja, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Diya Chitle–will play their Round of 128 matches later today. The men’s singles get underway from tomorrow.
