G Sathiyan upset world number 5 Harimoto Tomokazu to give India some bragging points as they went down 3-1 against Japan in the quarter-finals of the 24th ITTF Asian table tennis championships (Championship Division) in Tokyo on Monday.
The 26-year-old did not drop a set in the 11-4, 11-7, 12-10 victory over the 16-year-old Japanese prodigy to provide India the only point.
HUMONGOUS 🔥💥
— Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (@sathiyantt) September 16, 2019
That amazing moment when you take down the Japanese prodigy and WR 5 Harimoto Tomokazu in the ongoing Asian TT Championships 2019!
But unfortunately we lost to Japan 1-3 after we put up a spirited fight in the Men Team quarterfinals!#sathiyantt #tabletennis pic.twitter.com/IpqnGMVZfR
The experienced Achanta Sharath Kamal fought well in his first match against Maharu Yoshimura before going down 11-8, 12-10, 11-5, 14-12 and was later outplayed by Harimoto 11-7, 11-0, 11-0.
Takuya Jin defeated Harmeet Desai 11-7, 6-11, 11-6, 11-2 to complete the scoreline.
Earlier, India had defeated Thailand 3-0 to reach the quarterfinals.
However, the women’s team had gone down by an identical margin against Thailand in the first division.