Asian Games: Indian TT contingent aims to continue momentum as event kickstarts tomorrow

HANGZHOU: India's table tennis contingent will be aiming to continue their winning run at the ongoing Asian Games. The event will officially kickstart from tomorrow morning with an opening ceremony at 5:30 pm (IST).

In the table tennis, in the women's Group F match, India will take on Nepal at 7:30 AM IST. Later, India will take on Tajikistan at 9:30 IST in the men's Group F match. The men's team started its Asian Games campaign on a dominating note, defeating Yemen 3-0.

Playing at the GSP Gymnasium Table 7, India demolished Yemen in its campaign opener. Sathiyan won the first match of the tie to register a dominating 11-3,11-2,11-6 triumph over Ali Omar Ahmed of Yemen in just 13 minutes. The victory gave India a 1-0 lead.

In the second match of the tie, Sharath produced a spectacular performance 11-3, 11-4, 11-6 to help India take a 2-0 lead over Yemen. The Indian ace took just 17 minutes to quash the challenge from Yemen’s Ebrahim Abdulhakim Mohamm Gubran. Harmeet Desai sealed the deal for India as he gave his team a comfortable 3-0 victory over Yemen. Although Harmeet was offered the first two games 11-1, 11-1, on a platter, Magd Ahmed Ali Aldhubhani made the Indian’s life a bit difficult in the potential decider. The decider, six minutes long, eventually went 11-7 in favour of Harmeet.

Later, in the second match, India defeated Singapore 3-1 to win their second match of the day on Friday. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran won the thriller against Izaac Yong in men’s singles 5-11, 12-10, 11-6, 11-9 in the opening tie.

In the second match, Harmeet did not start well as he was trailed by four points at one juncture but made a comeback to win the first game 12-10 in 11 minutes. Harmeet provided 2-0 to the team by winning the second match by 12-10, 11-8, 6-11, 6-11, 11-5. Achanta Sharath Kamal had hard luck as he lost his game against Zhe Yu Clarence Chew. Sharath Kamal struggled against Zhu Yu Clarance Chew, losing the 11-13, 11-9, 12-10, 5-11 and Singapore was still in the game at 2-1.

India clinched the match against Singapore after Sathiyan won the fourth tie 11-7, 12-10, 11-9, 11-6 against Pang. India won the tie by 3-1. The women's table tennis team started off their campaign with a hard-fought win over Singapore in their Group F match at the ongoing Asian Games at Hangzhou on Friday.

India beat Singapore by 3-2. In the first match of the tie, Ayhika Mukherjee took on Jian Zeng in women's singles competition. Jian won the game by 3-1 (7-11, 11-2, 11-7, 12-10) to give Singapore a 1-0 lead.

In the second match of the tie, Manika Batra took on Jingyi Zhou in another women's singles match. Batra reversed the fortunes of Singapore, levelling the scoreline 1-1 with a 3-1 win over the Singaporean (11-9, 9-11, 11-7, 11-3). Sreeja Akula took on Ru Xin Wong in the third match of the tie. This match was a hard-fought won but Sreeja won it by 3-2 (12-14, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7). With this, the scoreline turned in India's favour at 2-1.

However, Singapore refused to go down without a fight. Jian defeated Manika by 3-2 in a hard-fought match (11-3, 3-11, 12-10, 10-12, 12-10) to level the scoreline at 2-2. In the final match of the tie, Ayhika beat Zhou by 3-1 (11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 11-5) to seal a 3-2 win for India.

India is at the top of Group F in men's competition with two wins while the women's team is second in their group. Coming to sailing, multiple races will take place in Men’s 49er, Boys’ ILCA4, Men’s iQFoil, Men’s RS:X, Women’s RS:X etc events.

The Indian sailing contingent delivered some solid performances at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Friday during the qualification rounds. In the men's dinghy event, Vishnu Saravanan finished day two at the first position among 13 participants. He finished race one with a race point, fifth in race two with five race points and first in race three with one race point. In race four, he finished seventh with seven race points, earning a total of 14 points.

The women's single dinghy competition saw Nethra Kumanan finish day two at fourth out of nine players with 19 race points in four races. In the first race, she finished at number two with two race points, then fourth place with four race points in race two. The third race saw her finish in sixth place with six race points and then finally in race four, she finished in seventh position with seven race points. In the women's skiff competition, Harshita Tomar and Shital Verma finished in the third spot with 20 race points in six races. In race one, they finished at sixth position with six race points, then second place with two race points in race two and third with three race points in race three. In the fourth race, they finished at fourth place with four race points, at second place with two race points in race five and third place with three race points in the sixth race.

In the men's skiff competition, the pair of KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar was placed fourth out of eight teams. In six races, they had 24 race points. In race one, they finished eighth with eight race points, then third with three race points in race two. In race three, they finished fourth with four race points. In the next three races, they secured third position with three race points.Coming to the girl's dinghy competition, India's Neha Thakur finished the day at second place out of eight players with ten race points in four races.

The sailing events will conclude on September 27.