Asian Games 2026: Indian women’s table tennis team remains unbeaten; men suffer shock defeat to Iran
FILE PHOTO: Yashaswini clinched a 3-2 win over Singapore’s Ming to keep India’s record in tact. | Photo Credit: SHASHI SHEKHAR KASHYAP
FILE PHOTO: Yashaswini clinched a 3-2 win over Singapore’s Ming to keep India’s record in tact. | Photo Credit: SHASHI SHEKHAR KASHYAP
The Indian women’s table tennis team won both its group-stage matches, while the men’s had a mixed bag of results at the Asian Games 2026 on Sunday.
In the women’s event, India registered 3-0 and 3-2 wins against Indonesia and Singapore respectively. While the match against the Indonesians was straightforward, the tie against the Singaporeans was anything but that.
Against Indonesia, Sreeja Akula, Diya Chitale, and Yashaswini Ghorpade recorded wins. They beat Ni Maharani 3-1 (11-3, 8-11, 11-4, 11-4), Almaira Nebuchadnezzar 3-0 (11-9, 11-8, 11-5), and Citra Rasmi 3-0 (12-10, 11-4, 11-4) respectively.
The Indians began the tie against Singapore with a win as Yashaswini beat World No. 47 Zeng Jian 3-1 (11-7, 11-3, 8-11, 11-9). However, teenager Ming Loy outlasted Sreeja to clinch a 3-2 (11-8, 4-11, 11-9, 4-11, 11-6) win.
Diya went on to lose 1-3 (7-11, 4-11, 11-7, 5-11) to Zhao Tan, before Sreeja beat Jian 3-1 (6-11, 11-3, 11-7, 11-4) to force a decider. In the fifth match, Yashaswini clinched a 3-2 win (5-11, 11-8, 12-10, 4-11, 11-9) over Ming to keep India’s record in tact.
Iran upsets India
Over at the men’s event, India began the day with a convincing 3-0 win over Indonesia. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (3-0 win over Muhammad Negara; 11-8, 11-7, 11-9), Manav Thakkar (3-2 win over Muhammad Junindra; 11-7, 8-11, 11-6, 6-11, 11-9), and Manush Shah (3-0 win over Affan Pratama; 11-9, 11-9, 12-10) made it a straight-matches victory.
However, it suffered a shock defeat against Iran which had considerable lower-ranked players as compared to the Indians.
Noshad Alamiyan, ranked 346th in the world, handed Manush, ranked 43rd in the world, a 3-0 (11-3, 11-8, 12-10) loss. Teenage paddler Benyamin Faraji, the highest-ranked Iranian in the team at World No. 193, then beat Manav (World No. 48) 3-0 (11-2, 11-6, 11-6).
With Iran comfortable with a 2-0 lead in the tie, the job fell on the experienced shoulders of Harmeet Desai, who replaced Sathiyan for this contest, to keep India in the contest.
Harmeet, ranked 95, was stretched by World No. 562 Nima Alamian and lost 2-3 (10-12, 15-13, 3-11, 12-10, 2-11).
Both Indian teams will face Pakistan in their final group-stage fixtures on September 21, Monday.
Published on Sep 20, 2026
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