blanked 0-3 by Chinese Taipei in the semifinal of the Asian Table Tennis Championships in Pyeongchang, South Korea on Wednesday.
The Indian team comprising veteran Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran caved as all of them lost their matches.
The two losing semi-finalists are awarded bronze medals at the competition.
Commonwealth Games champion Sharath Kamal lost 0-3 to Chuang Chih-Yuan, a former doubles world champion .In the second match, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran fell 0-3 to Lin Yun-Ju,
In the must-win third match of the tie, Harmeet Desai fought hard but lost 1-3 to Kao Cheng-Jui.
The Indian team, seeded third in the tournament, had defeated Singapore 3-0 to seal a spot in the final four and ensured a medal on Monday.
On Tuesday, the Indian women’s team of Manika Batra, Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee lost 0-3 to Thailand to finish sixth. The trio had registered a 3-2 win over ngapore in a 5-8 position play-off tie earlier on the same day.
The women’s team’s medal prospects ended after a 0-3 defeat to Japan in the quarter-finals on Monday.
In the mixed doubles, the pair of Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost 2-3 to Thailand’s Phakpoom Sanguansin and Orawan Paranang in the round of 32 on Tuesday. Another 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.
The Asian Table Tennis Championships was also a qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Quota places were on offer for the winners of the men’s and women’s team and mixed doubles events.
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