India advances to pre-QFs of World Team TT Championships

The men's side will face China in the knock-out game.

Indian men's table tennis team on Tuesday reached the last 16 of the World Team Table Tennis Championships 2022 in Chengdu, China. India lost their last group match against France 3-0 and finished on 7 points in four games. They were placed on third in their group besides Germany and France but qualified in the pre-quarterfinals as they are the best-placed third team alongside England. They will now take on the top-ranked and world-beater China in the pre-quarterfinals.

The Indian team who was on top of their group till stage was unbeaten having defeated Kazakhstan, and Germany on their way. However, after their loss to France, they dropped down to third place after being tied equally with Germany and France on seven points. In the other group, Romania defeated Hong Kong 3-2 in Group 3. With the loss, Hong Kong finished second in their group followed by Romania in third.

Based on the format of the event, the top two highest ranked third-placed teams in the group stage also make it through to the Round of 16, along with the top two teams of each group. Ranked 17th, the Indian team made it to the last 16 as one of the two highest-ranked third-placed teams.

In their last group game against France, Manav Thakkar faced defeat at the hands of Alexis LeBrun 11-6, 11-8, 11-8 in the opening match. The French maintained their domination in the second game too as Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, India's highest-ranked paddler lost his match in another straight-set 11-4, 11-2, 11-6 by Felix LeBrun. Harmeet Desai then showed some nerve of steel by winning the first and third set but eventually went down 2-3 (13-11, 11-13, 11-7, 8-11, 7-11) to Jules Rolland.

Earlier, India upset the silver medalist of Tokyo, Germany by defeating them 3-1 on the road to the knockouts. On Monday, the Indian women’s team made it through to the Round of 16 finishing second in their group of four.