Asian Games: Manush Shah, Diya Chitale secure bronze after loss to reigning gold medallists 'Sha-Tou'

TOYOTA — Indian paddlers Manush Shah and Diya Chitale secured a bronze medal in the mixed doubles table tennis event after they lost to two-time defending champions Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin 0-4 in the semifinal at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium here on Friday.

The Indian pair came into the semifinal after defeating four-time world medallists and World No.4 Wong Chun and Doo Ho in the quarterfinal 3-1. However, they could not replicate their strong performance in the semis as they were outdone by a much superior opponent.

They were up against the Olympic champions and two-time Asian Games winners in Wang and Sun, who are popularly known as 'Sha-Tou'. The Indians put a fight in the first game but lost 8-11. They were blown away in the second game, losing 5-11 before being 0-5 down in the third game.

The two staged a comeback and pushed the Chinese pair in the third game but lost it 8-11 before being blown away yet again in the third game 2-11 to lose the semifinal.

Manush and Diya are the second Indian mixed doubles pair to win a medal at the Asiad after Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra.

Earlier, Men's doubles pair of Harmeet Desai and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost their third round match to Japanese pair of Sora Matsushima and Shunsuke Togami 0-3. Indian Women's doubles pair of Yashaswini Ghorpade and Diya had earlier lost the third round match to China's Shuhan Fan and Yi Chen 0-3.

Sreeja Akula and Syndrela Das had lost their Women's doubles round 3 match to China's Man Kuai and Manyu Wang 0-3, while Manav Thakkar went down to North Korea's Ryong Tae 2-4 in the Men's singles round 2 match.

Manush Shah had also lost the Men's doubles round 2 match with Manav against Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto and Hiroto Shinozuka 1-3.

Meanwhile, Yashaswini won her Women's singles round 2 clash against Syria's Hend Zaza 4-1.