Harmeet bows out in semis

India's Harmeet Desai put up a gallant performance before going down to Tristan Flore of France 3-4 in the penultimate round of the 2017 ITTF Challenge, Zagreb Open today.

According to information received here, Harmeet - who had beaten the Frenchman in the Indian Open early this year - could not repeat the win and lost his way conceding a 11-6, 10-12, 11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 11-6, 8-11 defeat.

Harmeet who had just broken into the top 100 of the world rankings, had to settle for the bronze medal.

In the previous round, Harmeet pulled off a 4-3 win against Quentin Robinot of France.
 

The Indian played confidently and clinched a deserving 11-8, 10-12, 12-14, 11-9, 6-11, 11-4, 11-7 in the quarter-final round.

In the pre-quarter-finals, Harmeet defeated Yuto Kizukuri of Japan 4-1 (11-6, 11-7, 6-11, 11-8, 11-7).

However, the second Indian in the fray Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost to Jonathan Groth 1-4 (5-11,11-6,10-12,3-11,8-11).