Indian men qualify for Stage 2 in TT

Following the footsteps of the women's team, the Indian men's squad entered the second stage of the Asian Table Tennis Championships at Pattaya, Thailand, today.
The Indian team, consisting of Achanta Sharath Kamal, Soumyajit Ghosh, Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty and G. Sathiyan, did their primary job of winning both their group matches against Philippines and Qatar to take the top perch in Group A.
Though the match against the Philippines was easy but the Indians had to really put up a good fight to beat Qatar 3-2 as that was the only way they could have entered Stage 2.
It was a tough opening for India as Harmeet Desai went down 13-11, 11-13, 4-11, 3-11, but Ghosh beat Abdulrahman Al-Naggar 11-5, 11-3, 11-5 to keep India in hunt. And then Sathiyan played brilliantly to beat Ahmad Al Mohannadi 11-4, 9-11, 11-9, 11-2 to put India in lead.

Surprisingly, however, Ghosh went down in straight sets to Li Ping 6-11, 7-11, 8-11 to take the match to the decider. This time Harmeet Desai made amends against Abdulrahman in a tough battle to win 14-12, 11-13, 11-8, 13-11. He had to play three extended points game to overcome the Qatari.
Placed in the top half of the draw, the top-ranked Indian men will play their quarterfinals against Uzbekistan. In the semifinal they could run into either hosts Thailand or Malaysia, assuming they beat the Uzbeks.

In the bottom half, North Korea will play Vietnam while No. 2 ranked team, Iran take on Kazakhstan.

Only two teams from stage 2 go to the Champion Division.
Earlier in the day, the Indian eves managed to keep a clean slate in the women's team first stage as they topped Group B and were just one win away from qualifying for the Champion Division.
Having got a quarterfinal bye in Stage 2, the Indian team needs to win in the semifinals to ensure itself a place in the Champion Division, where it will get to rub shoulders with the top continental teams.