Tashkent, Oct 23 (IANS) India’s Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade achieved a significant milestone when the duo assured a medal for India in the mixed doubles at the Asian Table Tennis Championships in Tashkent on Friday.
The Indian pair marched into the semifinal to assure a medal for India in the mixed doubles event at the Asian TT Championships for the first time after 72 years. The last time India won a mixed doubles medal at the event was in 1954.
Harmeet and Yashaswini assured themselves of at least a bronze by marching in the semifinals in the mixed event. They defeated South Korea’s Park Ganghyeon and Lee Daeun 3-2 in the quarterfinal to confirm a medal.
Harmeet and Yashaswini will now be facing Japan’s Sora Matsushima and Miwa Harimoto in the semifinal for a place in the final.
Another Indian mixed pair, Payas Jain and Syndrela Das, missed out on assuring a medal when they lost to China’s Yi Chen and Huang Youzheng in the quarterfinal 0-3.
Harmeet was part of the recent Asian Games, but missed out on a medal in all three events in which he took part. He was seen in action in the Men’s Team event, where India advanced to the round of 16 but lost to South Korea. He partnered with Yashaswini in the mixed doubles, where they reached the quarterfinals but lost to China’s Lin Shidong and Kuai Man.
He was also in action in the men’s doubles event with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran; however, they bowed out in the third round after losing to Japan’s Sora Matsushima and Shunsuke Togami.
Yashaswini also returned empty-handed from the Asian Games. She lost in the women’s singles third round to Japan’s Miwa Harimoto. Yashaswini and Diya Chitale had reached the women’s doubles quarter-finals before being beaten 0-3 by China’s Fan Shuhan and Chen Yi.
–IANS
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