World Team TT Finals: Indian men advance to round of 16 despite loss against France

Chengdu (China), Oct 4 : The Indian mens table tennis team advanced to the round of 16 despite losing 0-3 to France in their final Group 2 tie at the ITTF World Team Championships Finals 2022, here on Tuesday.

In the first match, youngster Manav Thakkar went down 0-3 to (6-11, 8-11, 8-11) to world No 30 Alexis Lebrun.

In the second match, Commonwealth Games 2022 bronze-medallist Sathiyan Gnanasekaran suffered a shocking 0-3 (4-11, 2-11, 6-11) defeat to 16-year-old Felix Lebrun, the younger brother of Alexis.Thereafter, National Games champion Harmeet Desai gave a tough fight to Jules Rolland but ultimately lost 2-3 (11-13,13-11,7-11, 11-8, 7-11) and conceded the tie.However, the mens table tennis team had won their previous three matches, including a memorable win over second seeds Germany and ended up with seven points in four ties.It placed India third in Group 2 and ensured that they advanced to the knockout stages as one of the best-placed third teams in the group stages.

The Indian womens team has also made it through to the round of 16.#Indian #advance #France #Karan #Karan #Germany #Chengdu.