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In a mixed day at work for the contingent, the Indian table tennis men's team faced a 1-3 loss to Poland while the women's side secured a thrilling 3-2 win over Hungary in the World Team Table Tennis Championships being held in Busan, South Korea on Sunday.
India's multi-time Commonwealth Games medalist Achanta Sharath Kamal started off things for the Indian men's team, but lost to Poland's Jakub Dyjas by 1-3 (11-8, 8-11, 11-4, 12-10). Harmeet Desai helped India make a comeback with a 3-1 win over 131st-ranked Kubik Maciej (12-10, 13-11, 9-11, 11-5). The scoreline was level at 1-1. The world number 86-ranked Indian Manav Thakkar locked horns with Milosz Redzimski in a five-game battle, but lost by 2-3 (9-11, 11-9, 14-12, 6-11, 7-11). India was trailing by 2-1. Then Harmeet took on Jakub and lost by 3-1 (7-11, 7-11, 11-8, 14-12) and India lost the match as well. After a win over Chile by 3-0 and this loss to Poland, India sits in fourth place out of five in their group three with three points. Later, the women's team managed to secure a 3-2 win over Hungary, getting their first win of the tournament. Manika, the world number 36 paddler, scored an impressive victory in the first match, beating the 90th-ranked Dora Madarasz 3-2 (8-11, 11-5, 12-10, 8-11, 11-4). Manika also won the decider tie for India, beating Georgina Pota 3-0 (11-5, 14-12, 13-11) securing a 3-2 win. In between Manika's successful outings, Ayhika Mukherjee beat Bernadett Balint 3-1 in the third tie (7-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-8) and Sreeja Akula registered two losses. She lost to Pota 2-3 (3-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-9, 8-11) in the second tie and then to Madarasz by 1-3 (4-11, 6-11, 11-5, 7-11) in her fourth tie, making the scoreline level at 2-2. After the 3-2 loss to China in the first game and this victory against Hungary, the Indian women's team sits in third place out of five in their group one with three points. The men's team will next play against South Korea on Monday while the women side's next challenge will be Uzbekistan. During the course of men's and women's events, up to eight Paris Olympics quotas each are at stake, given to the teams who will reach the quarterfinals and have not secured any team quotas before. The Indian men's and women's table tennis teams have not secured any quotas for the multi-sport extravaganza starting from July onwards this year. The men's and women's Indian table tennis teams are yet to obtain quotas for the Paris Olympics. (ANI)
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