Harmeet loses, so does Indian TT team at Worlds

AHMEDABAD: A lot was expected from Surat-based paddler Harmeet Desai when Indian table tennis team left for Tokyo to take part in the World Team TT championship. But, much to the disappointment of Indian fans, both Harmeet and the Indian team fared badly as the men's team bowed out of the World Team Table Tennis Championships after they were blanked by Egypt 0-3 in Stage 2 of the second division recently.
This would mean that the men's team, which had finished 27th in the last worlds two years ago in Germany, will end up in the 32-36 brackets this time which is very low compared to what was expected from the young and budding paddlers.
Veteran Sharath Kamal went down fighting first and then youngsters Soumyajit Ghosh and Harmeet Desai lost out tamely. The fact that Indians were not able to pull off a single victory was a matter of great disappointment.
Harmeet came to play when was India was trailing 0-2. Desai played his usual attacking game but couldn't do much against Saleh Ahmed who beat him easily 11-5, 11-5, 7-11, 11-7.
Harmeet should now target the upcoming Commonwealth Games to make an impact at international level.