Men’s team beats Kazakhstan; women’s side reaches last-16

CHENGDU: The India men’s team, led by Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, defeated Kazakhstan 3-2 in a hard-fought Group 2 tie at the World Table Tennis Championships here on Monday.

With the victory, the men’s squad kept alive its hopes of progressing to the knockouts. It now needs to beat France in its final league tie to finish on top of the Group 2 table. In case Sathiyan and Co. loses to France and Germany happens to defeat Kazakhstan, there will be a three-way tie between India, Germany and France. Meanwhile, the women’s team prevailed

3-1 over Egypt in a Group 5 tie to advance to the pre-quarterfinals.

After the high of beating second seed Germany, Sathiyan started the new tie in earnest, making short work of Denis Zholudev in straight games. Sathiyan won 11-1, 11-9, 11-5.

Harmeet Desai had a poor outing against Kirill Gerassimenko to lose 6-11, 8-11, 9-11 while Manav Thakkar got the better of Alan Kurmangaliyev 12-10, 11-1, 11-8.

With the team leading 2-1, Sathiyan was expected to close out the tie in the fourth rubber but Kirill edged out the Indian ace 6-11, 11-5, 12-14, 11-9, 11-6 to restore parity. However, Harmeet was in his element against Zholudev, whom he beat 12-10, 11-9, 11-6.

In the women’s tie, Sreeja Akula won the first and fourth rubbers to help India clinch a spot in the knockout stages. Sreeja defeated Goda Han 11-6, 11-4, 11-1 and Dina Mishref 11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 11-6 while Manika Batra struggled past Dina 8-11, 11-6, 11-7, 2-11, 11-8. Diya Chitale ended second best against her opponent Yousra Helmy, losing by a scoreline of 11-5, 10-12, 11-9, 9-11, 4-11.

The India men’s team needs to beat France in its final league tie to finish on top of the Group 2 table