Asian TT Championship: How Indian men beat Kazakhstan for bronze; still in mix to reach final

It was a commanding triumph for the 3rd seeds, with the youngest player, 24-year-old Manav Thakkar, giving them the cleanable commencement with a straight-game (11,9,11-7, 11-6) triumph implicit World No. 46 Kirill Gerassimenko, who had earlier reached the Round-of-16 astatine the Paris Olympics.

The youngster from Surat, who won the season’s archetypal national-ranking tourney past month, was astatine his attacking champion and gave his hostile perfectly nary accidental to travel backmost into the match. His forehand onslaught crossed the array was sublime and helium varied the gait brilliantly too.

Paris: Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar and Sharath Kamal of India respond during the Men Team Round of 16 Match betwixt China and India of the Table Tennis competitions successful the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, astatine The South Paris Arena successful Paris, France, 06 August 2024. (EPA-EFE/RITCHIE B. TONGO VIA PTI)

Harmeet Desai, who is struggling for signifier of late, mislaid the adjacent lucifer successful consecutive games to a overmuch lower-ranked hostile successful Alan Kurmangaliyev. That nonaccomplishment brought Kazakhstan backmost into the necktie against their higher-seeded opponents.

Sharath Kamal, who played his past Olympics but continues to correspond the nationalist team, showed wherefore helium is inactive India’s apical subordinate with a dominating 3-0 (11-4, 11-7, 12-10) triumph implicit Aidos Kenzhigulov to springiness the men’s squad the pb going into the last lucifer of the tie.

Harmeet past sprung into action, coming from a 1-2 shortage astatine 1 constituent successful the 4th lucifer against Kirill and overturned that to triumph 3-2 and springiness India a spot successful the semifinal.