HANGZHOU (China): The Indian men’s table tennis team of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Achanta Sharath Kamal and Harmeet Desai 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. However, the decider, six minutes long, eventually went 11-7 in favour of Harmeet.
Later in the day, Indian women’s team will take on Singapore. (ANI)