The Indian men’s team finished with a bronze medal at the Asian Table Tennis Championships 2023 following a semi-final defeat to Chinese Taipei in Pyeongchang, the Republic of Korea, on September 6. The team comprising Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost 0-3 in their final four match.
Commonwealth Games champion Sharath Kamal opened the proceedings for the Indian men’s team and lost 0-3 to Chuang Chih-Yuan, a former doubles world champion. In the second match, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost to Lin Yun-Ju 0-3. In the third match of the tie, India’s Harmeet Desai lost 1-3 to Kao Cheng-Jui. The team, seeded third in the tournament, had defeated Singapore 3-0 to seal a spot in the final four and ensured a medal on September 4.
On September 5, the Indian women’s team of Manika Batra, Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee lost 0-3 to Thailand to finish sixth. The Indian trio had registered a 3-2 win over Singapore in a 5-8 position play-off tie earlier on the same day. Their medal prospects ended after a 0-3 defeat to Japan in the quarter-finals on September 4.
In the mixed doubles, the Indian pair of Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost 2-3 to Thailand’s Phakpoom Sanguansin and Orawan Paranang in the round of 32 on September 5. Another Indian pair of Harmeet Desai and Sreeja Akula lost 0-3 to the top-seeded Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata of Japan in round of 32.
