World Team table tennis Championships: Indian women maintain winning run; men lose to Korea

Indian women’s team continued its winning ways as it blanked Uzbekistan 3-0 in a Group 1 match of the World team table tennis championships in Busan.

India’s Manika Batra in action. | Photo Credit: REUTERS

Indian women’s team continued its winning ways as it blanked Uzbekistan 3-0 in a Group 1 match of the World team table tennis championships in Busan on Monday.

Having lost to Poland the other day, the Indian men’s team had no chance against the third seed Korea as it lost 0-3 in a Group 3 contest.

Against a weak team that had only one world ranked player in Markhabo Magdieva (395), India fielded Archana Kamath and Diya Chitale for the first time in the Championships and they didn’t disappoint.

Archana started confidently in the first tie against Rimma Gufranova. The Indian raced to a 7-3 lead but the Uzbek took the next three points. Archana, however, closed out the match without ado. The next two games were a cakewalk for her.

Manika Batra had it easy against Magdieva without breaking much of a sweat. In the third rubber, Diya was up against a defensive paddler in Rozalina Khadjiev.

Diya won the first game very comfortably but the second game turned out to be quite tough as the Uzbek attacked at the first opportunity. Trailing 8-10, Rozalina won the next four points to bag the second game. Diya continued to attack in the third and fourth games to win the match with some ease.

Indian men will next face New Zealand on Tuesday while the women will meet Spain.

The results

Men: Group 3: Korea bt India 3-0 (Jang Woojin bt Harmeet Desai 11-4, 11-7, 11-7; Lim Jonghoon bt G. Sathiyan 11-5, 11-7, 11-7; Lee Sang Su bt Sharath Kamal 11-9, 8-11, 11-6, 11-5).

Women: Group 1: India bt Uzbekistan 3-0 (Archana Kamath bt Rimma Gufranova 11-7, 11-3, 11-6; Manika Batra bt Markhabo Magdieva 11-7, 11-4, 11-1; Diya Chitale bt Rozalina Khadjiev 11-6, 10-12, 11-6, 11-4).