Indian men, women TT teams a win away from securing Tokyo Olympics berths

A quarterfinal finish guarantees qualification for the Tokyo Olympics. India have never qualified as a team in Olympic history, limiting its participation in individual events.

Sharath Kamal and Harmeet Desai got India off to a winning start, beating Gilles Michely and Eric Glod 11-9, 16-14, 116 in the opening doubles.

Touchdown Portugal. 🇵🇹
First match tomorrow as we take on Luxembourg in the first round!#TableTennis #TeamIndia #OlympicQualifiers pic.twitter.com/NwHPhENlFi

— Sharath Kamal (@sharathkamal1) January 21, 2020

In the subsequent singles, world number 30 Sathiyan lost the first two games against Mladenovic before fighting back to prevail 8-11, 9-11, 11-3, 13-11, 11-6.

Veteran Sharath, ranked 33, conceded a game to Glod but eventually won 11-3, 11-3, 12-14, 11-5 to complete a 3-0 victory. The seedings suggest that India are a much better side than Slovenia but Sharath said it will be 50-50 contest.

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“They have a pretty balanced team,” he told PTI, referring to the presence of 40th ranked Darko Jorgic and 62nd ranked Bojan Tokic in the Slovenian camp.

Slovenia beat Iran 3-1 in their round of 32 match.

Like the men, the Indian women too are a win away from creating history. The 17th seeds pipped 11th seeds Sweden 3-2 after Archana Kamath saved a match point to beat Linda Bergstrom in the fifth and deciding rubber. She won 11-8, 8-11, 9-11, 11-7, 13-11.

However, the foundation of the memorable victory was laid by top-ranked Indian Manika Batra, who won both her singles, beating Bergstrom and Christina Kallberg 3-1 and 3-2 respectively.

The Indians will have to produce something special if they are to down a much stronger Romania in the pre-quarterfinals on Friday.

Manika, ranked at 61, is the sole Indian in the top-100 while Romania boast of 19th ranked Bernadette Szocs and 31st ranked Elizabeta Samara.