Harmeet, Yashaswini Clinch Medal at Asian TT Event

Tashkent, October 23: Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade have secured a medal for India at the Asian Table Tennis Championship. The pair reached the semifinals of the mixed doubles event on Friday, ensuring at least a bronze and ending a 72-year gap for India in this category.

The last Indian medal in mixed doubles at this championship came in 1954. Now, the Indian duo has moved into the semifinal stage, where they will meet Japan's Sora Matsushima and Miwa Harimoto. The winners of that contest will progress to the final.

The path to the semifinals was not easy. In the quarterfinals, Harmeet and Yashaswini overcame South Korea's Park Gyeonghyeon and Lee Do-eun by a 3-2 scoreline.

India's other mixed pairing, Payas Jain and Sindrella Das, lost 0-3 to China's Yi Chen and Huang Yuzheng in the quarterfinals and failed to secure a medal.

Harmeet's recent campaign at the Asian Games did not produce a medal in any of his three events. He was part of the men's team that reached the round of 16 before losing to South Korea. In mixed doubles with Yashaswini, he advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to China's Lin Shidong and Kuai Man. He also played men's doubles with Satyan Gnanasekaran, and the pair lost in the third round to Japan's Sora Matsushima and Shunsuke Togami.

Yashaswini similarly returned without a medal from the Asian Games. She was beaten by Japan's Miwa Harimoto in the third round of women's singles. In women's doubles with Diya Chitale, she reached the quarterfinals, where the pair lost 0-3 to China's Fan Shuhan and Chen Yi.

The pair's success in Tashkent represents a notable achievement and sets up a crucial semifinal contest.