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World Team Table Tennis Championships: Indian men outplayed by Korea, women blank Uzbekistan
The women's team has the knockouts in sight and will take on Spain in its final group tie on Tuesday.
The last time Harmeet Desai and Jang Woojin stood across the table, the Indian blazed past the Korean in straight games en route his career-best semi-final run at the WTT Contender Lagos in June last year.
It was Woojin's turn to sizzle on Monday, blowing the top-ranked Indian male away 3-0 (11-4, 12-10, 11-8) as India went down to South Korea without much of a fight at the 2024 c in Busan. Only Sharath Kamal managed to snatch a game in his 3-1 (9-11, 11-8, 6-11, 5-11) defeat to Lee Sang Su after G Sathiyan had also succumbed 3-0 (5-11, 7-11, 7-11) to Lim Jonghoon.
The Indian women's team blanked Uzbekistan 3-0 even as it fielded Archana Kamath and Diya Chitale against an opposition that had just one ranked player. While Archana defeated Rimma Gufranova 3-0 (11-7, 11-3, 11-6) in the first match, young Diya finished things off with a 3-1 (11-6, 10-12, 11-4, 11-6) win over Rozalina Khadjieva. India No. 1 Manika Batra breezed past Markhabo Magdieva 3-0 (11-7, 11-4, 11-1) in between as Ayhika Mukherjee and Sreeja Akula were rested.
The women's team, currently second in Group 1 behind China, has the knockouts spot well in sight and will take on Spain in its final group tie on Tuesday. Should they beat the Spaniards, India will finish a strong second in the group and draw one of the third-placed teams from the other groups in the Round of 32. The quarter-finalists here will get a Paris Olympics team spot.
The men, on the other hand, are third in Group 3 after beating Chile and losing to Poland. They face a winless New Zealand on Tuesday in a must-win tie, but their fate will also depend on how the Poland-Chile match pans out. If Poland win, India (assuming they beat New Zealand) will go through to the knockouts in third place but if Chile win, it is likely to come down to the number of games won.
Against the third-ranked Koreans in front of their home crowd, the Indians were largely outplayed. Harmeet had few answers to world No. 14 Woojin’s fast movements and quicker forehands in the first game. Harmeet led 4-3 in the second game and even set up two game points with a nice forehand flick, but Woojin managed to save them and roar ahead.
The Koreans were loud, jumping around after each point while silencing the Indians. Sathiyan, who likes to be expressive during matches, was also kept quiet by the 18th-ranked southpaw Jonghoon and, except briefly in the second game where he built a couple of good points, was always up against the wall.
The teams’ two most experienced players fronted up next, and Sharath was more passive in a slow start. He came back in the first game to make it 9-9 before world No. 27 Lee pocketed the next two points. Sharath was winning rallies with his touch game, and also upped his attacking play in the second where he led 6-3 and took the game converting the third of his four game points.
It remained neck and neck until 5-5 in third game, after which Sharath got just one point in the rest of the game, and five in the next as the Koreans completed the sweep.
