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The Indian men's and women's table tennis teams will continue their quest for a spot each in the Tokyo Olympics 2020 as they face off against Slovenia and Romania respectively in their Round of 16 encounters as part of the ongoing 2020 ITTF World Team Qualification Tournament taking place in Gondomar, Portugal.
With both the contingents needing to make the last eight for an assured spot in the global event, all eyes will be on the likes of Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra as they look to shepherd their team to a spot in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Indian men pin hopes on Sharath Kamal's experience
The Indian men's team began their campaign at the qualifiers on a positive note as they registered a 3-0 win over Luxembourg in their opening encounter.
The exciting duo of Harmeet Desai / Achanta Sharath Kamal made quick work of a challenge from Gilles Michely / Eric Glod to win 11-9, 16-14, 11-6 before Sathiyan Gnansekaran rallied from two sets down to claim an 8-11, 9-11, 11-3, 13-11, 11-6 win over Luka Mladenovic in the singles category.
With a 2-0 advantage in favour of India, Sharath Kamal then brought his experience to the fore to win two sets 11-3, 11-3 against Eric Glod. Later, despite Glod snatching a win from the third set (14-12), the ace Indian paddler kept his composure and sealed a win for his side with an 11-5 victory from the fourth set.
Given that Slovenia dropped a set against Iran en route to their 3-1 win from the Round of 32 matches, one can expect the Indian men, ranked 9th in the Olympic rankings to enter the match as favourites.
Manika Batra to lead Indian women's charge against Romania
Unlike the lopsided win for the men's team, the Indian eves had to fight it out with Sweden for a well-earned win after the duo of Archana Kamath / Ayhika Mukherjee fell to a 7-11, 10-12, 15-17 loss to Christina Kallberg / Matilda Ekholm that handed their opponents some early momentum.
However, Manika Batra soon restored parity with an 11-4, 6-11, 11-7, 11-7 win over Linda Bergstrom, only to see Sweden take a 2-1 lead courtesy of Ekholm's 11-5, 13-11, 11-6, 11-7 win over 21-year-old Ayhika Mukherjee.
Sweden's lead was yet again cut short by Batra, who clinched a nervy 10-12, 11-7, 9-11, 11-4, 11-7 win over Kallberg to set up the decider between Archana Kamath and Bergstrom.
The thrilling match was witness to both players finding ways to get one over the other as the clash went all the way to the final game in which Archana held her nerve and won the set 13-11, capping off a nail-biting win for the Indian women's team.
Next up, they will face off against Romania, a team which registered a hat-trick of 3-0 wins to completely outplay Italy and storm into the second round.
Match timings -
Women's team: India v Romania - 3.30 PM IST.
Men's team: India v Slovenia - 6.30 PM IST.
