Indian table tennis team loses to China in second match

India slumped to their second straight defeat in the ITTF Mixed Team World Cup 2024 table tennis tournament after being blanked 8-0 by the hosts People’s Republic of China in Chengdu on Monday.

The Indian table tennis team had lost 8-3 to the USA in its opening Group 1 match of the first stage of the competition on Sunday. Following the back-to-back losses, India are rooted to the bottom of the group standings behind top seeds China, Australia and the USA.

Only the top two from the group after the conclusion of the first stage will advance to the second stage of the competition.

In the opening mixed doubles rubber, India’s Jeet Chandra and Pritha Vartikar lost 3-0 (11-8, 11-2, 11-2) to China’s Kuai Man and Lin Shidong, the world No. 2 in men’s singles, at the Sichuan Gymnasium.

While world No. 88 Yashaswini Ghorpade then lost the women’s singles rubber 3-0 against Wang Yidi, third in the WTT rankings, by a 3-0 (11-4, 11-3, 11-8) margin.

The subsequent men’s singles saw India’s Snehit Suravajjula trail 2-0 (11-5, 11-9) against world No. 1 Wang Chuqin, bringing the tie to an end. According to the tournament format, the first team to win eight games wins the tie.

With experienced campaigners like Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran opting not to play in the tournament, a young Indian table tennis team is competing in Chengdu.

The Indian table tennis team will face Australia in its next match of the ITTF Mixed Team World Cup 2024 on Tuesday.

The ITTF Mixed Team World Cup is in its second edition after the inaugural tournament was also held in Chengdu last year. Hosts China emerged as the champions while India failed to make it past the first stage.

Click here to read article