Asian Games table tennis: Indian mixed doubles pairs advance to quarterfinals

Nagoya: The Indian pairings of Harmeet Desai-Yashaswini Ghorpade and Diya Chitale-Manush Shah comfortably advanced into the table tennis mixed doubles quarterfinals at the Asian Games on Wednesday.

The seventh-ranked duo of Chitale and Shah experienced little difficulty in securing 3-0 victories against pairings from Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

In the round of 16, Shah and Chitale comprehensively defeated Moosa Ahmed and Aishath Nazeem 11-0, 11-7, 11-6. They are set to encounter Hong Kong's Doo Hoi Kim and Wong Chun Ting in Thursday's quarterfinals, where a victory would guarantee them a medal at the continental tournament.

Ghorpade and Desai are slated to confront China's world number six pair of Lin Shidong and Kuai Man. The Indian duo's hard-fought victories on Wednesday came against opponents from Hong Kong and the Maldives.

In their opening fixture, Desai and Ghorpade were forced into a deciding fifth game by Mohammed Ismail and Fathimath Ali of the Maldives before pulling through 9-11, 11-6, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6.

They enjoyed a smoother path against Hong Kong's Wing Lam NG and Kwan To Yiu, winning 11-6, 11-5, 10-12, 11-7.

PTI