Indian men’s team beats Chile 3-0 in World TT Team Championships opener

Busan (Korea): The Indian men’s team secured a comfortable 3-0 victory over Chile to open its World Table Tennis Team Championships campaign on a winning note here on Saturday. Star Indian paddler Sharath Kamal, ranked 95, started off the proceedings in dominant fashion, racing to a 11-5 11-8 11-6 win over world number 53 Nicholas Burgos.

India’s top-ranked paddler and reigning national champion Harmeet Desai continued the momentum, beating the lowly-ranked Gustavo Gomez for a facile 11-8 11-7 11-6 win.

G Sathiyan was stretched in the first game by Olivares Felipe but the Indian paddler battled it out to seal the tie with a 12-10 11-8 11-8 victory.

The win has taken India (2 points) to third position in Group 3 behind South Korea (4 points) and Chile (3 points), who have played two ties each.

The Indian men’s team will take on Poland on Sunday followed by South Korea on Monday and New Zealand on Tuesday.

The Indian women’s team will also be in action on Sunday against Hungry. On Friday, Ayhika Mukherjee and Sreeja Akula had stunned the world’s top two players, Sun Yingsha and Wang Yidi, in their respective singles matches but the Indian women’s team lost to China narrowly in its opening tie.

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