The Indian men’s team reached the pre-quarterfinals despite losing 0-3 to France at the World Table Tennis Championships here on Tuesday.
The Indians escaped elimination due to the skin of their teeth, entering the Round of 16 as one of the top-ranked third teams in the group stages.
As a change of strategy, India started with Manav Thakkar against world number 30 Alexis LeBron, and a 0-3 (6-11, 8-11, 8-11) defeat pushed them straight onto the backfoot. Gave.
World no. 37 g. Sathiyan defeated Felix Lebrun in the second match. But the 86th-ranked Frenchman hit a punch above his weight and beat the Indian 11-4, 11-2, 11-6 in straight games to take his team 2-0 ahead.
Harmeet Desai too failed to withstand the pressure despite facing Jules Rolland, who won the third round 11-13, 13-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-7 to lead France to the top. -Despite a three-way tie, the position of the table in their group.
With three teams – France, Germany and India – finishing on the same point (7) with three wins and one loss, France relegated themselves to the top spot on a one-off victory over India.
However, India’s 0-3 defeat saw Germany thrash France 3-1 on Monday to finish second in the group.
The two highly ranked teams finished third in their group to fill two blanks in the top 16-team knockouts.
India qualified for the pre-quarterfinals as the other team in contention for this spot – Romania – is at the bottom of the world standings.
India will face top seed China in the pre-quarterfinals.
The Indian women’s team has also reached the 16th round.