Aichi-Nagoya, 25 September (H.S.): Indian pairs endured a disappointing outing in the table tennis doubles events on Friday, the sixth day of the Asian Games. The combinations of Harmeet Desai-Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Diya Chitale-Yashaswini Ghorpade and Sreeja Akula-Syndrela Das suffered defeats in the third round.

In the men’s doubles, Harmeet Desai and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran were eliminated after Japan’s Sora Matsushima and Shunsuke Togami defeated them 3-0 in straight games. Earlier, the Indian pair had beaten Indonesia’s Affan Pratama and Muhammad Negara 3-2 in the second round. India won the opening two games 11-4 and 11-7, but the Indonesian pair levelled the contest by taking the next two games 11-7 and 11-8. India then won the deciding game 11-6.

In another men’s doubles match, the pair of Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah suffered a 1-3 defeat against Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto and Hiroto Shinozuka. Earlier, in the men’s singles, Manush Shah defeated Iran’s Benyamin Faraji 4-0 to advance to the third round. He won the contest 11-9, 11-6, 11-6 and 11-5. In the women’s singles, Yashaswini Ghorpade defeated Syria’s Hend Zaza to progress to the next round. However, Sreeja Akula and Manav Thakkar were beaten in their respective second-round singles matches. Current Asian Games coverage confirms the spellings of the players’ names, including Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Yashaswini Ghorpade, Diya Chitale, Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar.

In the women’s doubles, Diya Chitale and Yashaswini Ghorpade were defeated 0-3 by China’s Fan Shuhan and Chen Yi. Sreeja Akula and Syndrela Das also lost 0-3 to China’s Kuai Man and Wang Manyu.

India’s biggest table tennis achievement of the day came in the mixed doubles, where Diya Chitale and Manush Shah defeated Hong Kong, China’s Wong Chun Ting and Doo Hoi Kem in the quarter-finals to secure a medal. Contemporary reports confirm that the Indian pair advanced to the semi-finals, assuring India of a medal.

India had mixed results in other sports as well. In squash, Joshana Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar reached the mixed doubles semi-finals, securing a medal. In kabaddi, both the Indian women’s and men’s teams advanced to the finals after defeating Nepal and Thailand, respectively, in their semi-final matches.

The Indian women’s hockey team defeated Japan 3-1 in their Pool B encounter. In shooting, Suruchi Inder Singh and Kamaljeet won the gold medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team event, while Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil and Niraj Kumar secured the silver medal in the men’s 50m rifle three-position team event.

In badminton, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto progressed in the mixed doubles, while defending champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered an early-round defeat against a Thai pair.

In squash singles, Abhay Singh defeated Japan’s Ryunosuke Tsukue 3-0 to reach the semi-finals, while Anahat Singh defeated compatriot Tanvi Khanna to book her place in the women’s singles last four.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar