The Indian men’s table tennis team, on Wednesday, won the bronze medal following a 0-3 loss to Chinese Taipei in the semi-finals of the 2023 Asian Table Tennis Championships in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Harmeet Desai, the only Indian in top 100 of the men’s singles world rankings, was the only player from the team to take a game off his opponent, as both Sharath Kamal Achanta and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost in straight games.
Playing the first match of the tie Sharath Kamal went down 6-11, 6-11, 9-11 to Chuang Chih-Yuan, while Sathiyan lost 5-11, 6-11, 10-12 to world No 7 Lin Yun-Ju.
Put in a must win situation, Desai put up a valiant fight but lost 6-11, 7-11, 11-7, 9-11 to Kao Cheng-Jui.
Earlier, the third seeded Indian men’s team had made their way into the semi-finals with a 3-0 win over Singapore.
This is India’s second consecutive podium finish in the continental event, having won a bronze medal in Doha two years ago.
