CWG 2022: Indian men's table tennis team beat Singapore 3-1, win gold medal

The Indian men's table tennis team won their third gold medal at the Commonwealth Games when they triumphed 3-1 over Singapore in the final at the ongoing CWG 2022 in Birmingham on Tuesday (August 2).

The win also marked ace Indian paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal's 10th medal in the history of the Commonwealth Games. With table tennis men's singles and doubles events to follow, Sharath Kamal will be eyeing a good haul of medals.

Harmeet Desai and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran had little difficulty getting past Yong Izaak Que and Ye En Koen Pang in the opening doubles to set the tone for the match.

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However, Achanta Sharath Kamal lost the first singles encounter to Zhe Yu Clarence Chew 7-11, 14-12, 3-11, 9-11 as Singapore restored parity.

Sathiyan made it 2-1 in India's favor when he thwarted all attempts from lower-ranked Pang to win 12-10, 7-11, 11-7, 11-4.

It was Harmeet Desai who raised his game in the decisive singles and brought out his best game when it mattered the most. Harmeet outsmarted 133-ranked Clarence Chew 11-8, 11-5, 11-6 in the third singles to ensure India’s third gold men’s team medal in CWG history.

The gold was India’s seventh since the sport’s inception in Manchester in 2002.

Sharath Kamal struggled to contain Clarence but Harmeet went on the offensive against the left-hander and ensured that he did not have room to go for his powerful forehand winners. Harmeet’s backhand was also on fire as he won the majority of the long rallies.

Earlier, Sharath couldn't get going against Clarence losing the plot. Whenever the Indian placed the ball deep on Clarence’s forehand, the return was a winner.

Two net chords helped Sharath in the second game but Clarence comfortably won the next two.

However, Sathiyan and Harmeet ensured there were no blips as they won their respective matches to hand India the gold medal.

The Indian men's table tennis team won the team gold for the first time in Melbourne 2006 before repeating the feat in Gold Coast four years ago.