Asian Games: Campaign ends for India women's TT team with 0-3 loss to N. Korea in quarters

Nagoya, Sep 22 (IANS) The Indian women’s table tennis team crashed out of the team event at the Asian Games 2026 without a medal after suffering a 0-3 defeat to North Korea in their quarterfinal tie on Tuesday.

Sreeja Akula, Yashaswini Ghorpade and Diya Chitale all suffered straight-games defeats as North Korea completed a clean sweep to end India’s campaign in the event.

Sreeja, who had played a key role in India’s hard-fought win over Thailand in the previous round, was the first Indian player in action against Kum Yong Kim. However, she could not carry her form into the quarterfinal and went down 0-3, losing 7-11, 6-11, and 5-11.

India were then in serious trouble at 0-1, with Yashaswini tasked with keeping the team alive in the tie. She, too, could not find a way past Song Gyong Pyon, losing 4-11, 3-11, 6-11 as North Korea moved 2-0 ahead.

With their medal hopes hanging by a thread, Diya Chitale needed to win the third match against Su Yong Cha to keep India in the contest and force a comeback.

However, Diya went down 9-11, 7-11, and 8-11, allowing North Korea to seal a 3-0 victory and bring India’s women’s team campaign to an end.

India had entered the quarterfinals after a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Thailand earlier on Tuesday. The Indian team fought back from 2-1 down to secure the win, with Yashaswini Ghorpade keeping India in the contest with two victories.

Sreeja then sealed the tie with a 3-1 (9-11, 11-6, 12-10, 11-8) victory over Olympian and Asian Games medallist Suthasini Sawettabut.

The quarterfinal defeat means India’s wait for a maiden Asian Games women’s team medal continues.

India have so far won three Asian Games table tennis medals, all bronze. The breakthrough came at Jakarta 2018, where the Indian men’s team won the country’s first-ever table tennis medal at the Asian Games. Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra subsequently added another bronze in mixed doubles.

At Hangzhou 2023, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee won bronze in the women’s doubles, India’s first Asian Games medal in the discipline.

--IANS

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