INDIA: On Sunday in Group 2, the Indian men’s team defeated second-seeded Germany 3-1, defying enormous odds to pull off one of the biggest upsets of the World team table tennis championships. India has now won the Group twice in a row. Kazakhstan is the next foe on October 3rd.
Gnanasekaran, the top-ranked paddler in India and No. 37 in the world right now, stood out in the competition by winning both of his matches.
Gnanasekaran place it across World No. 36, Benedikt Duda, once being down by 2 games within the initial rubber. And once more in the fourth rubber against World No.9 Dang Qiu, the Indian fought back from being down by two games to end the tie in 5 games and therefore the contest in India’s favour.
In the first game of the match, Gnanasekaran came from behind to give India the advantage (11-13, 4-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-9) against Benedikt Duda. Amazingly, he would later duplicate the feat against European champion Dang Qiu (10-12, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-9).
On a notable day for Indian table tennis, despite losing the second match to Dang in four games, Manav Thakkar defeated Ricardo Walther, a player ranked 68 places higher than Manav, to win the third rubber (13-11, 6-11, 11-8, 12-10) for India’s other victory.
Cliffhanger ended the fourth game between Gnanasekaran and Dang. Gnanasekaran, who was down 3-6 in the fifth and final game, produced a cool-headed offensive game to record one of his best victories over a top-10 opponent in the world.
After dropping the first two games in both sets, Gnanasekaran mounted an impressive comeback.
“More difficult was the match versus Qiu. He is a top-10 athlete. Additionally, it was a very good match,” said Gnanasekaran.
After winning, Gnanasekaran tweeted, “Smashing victory today as we pulled off a massive upset by taking down the WR 2 & Olympic silver medalist team GERMANY 3-1 in the ongoing World Team Championships.”
“Happy to have contributed to the team by winning both my single matches against two higher ranked players, with current European Champion and WR 9 Dang Qiu and WR 36 Duda. Fantastic and team effort guys to secure an incredible win. Onwards & Upwards. YEH NAYA INDIA HAI, ” he continued.
In today’s World Table Tennis Championship, India beat Kazakhstan by 3-2. Harmeet Desai won the last match by 3-0 after it was tied at 2-2. It’s 3rd consecutive win for India.
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