Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade secured historic medals for India at the Asian TT Championship

Tashkent, Oct 23 (IANS) India’s Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade achieved a major milestone as they secured India a mixed doubles medal at the Asian Table Tennis Championships in Tashkent on Friday. India’s Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade secured at least a bronze medal in mixed doubles at the Asian Table Tennis Championships in Tashkent. The Indian pair defeated South Korea’s Park Ganghyeon and Lee Daeun 3-2 in the quarter-finals on Friday to reach the semi-finals.Their achievement marks a major milestone for Indian table tennis as the country secured a mixed doubles medal at the continental championship for the first time in 72 years. India’s last medal in the event came in 1954.Harmeet and Yashaswini will face Japan’s Sora Matsushima and Miwa Harimoto in the semi-finals. A win would send the Indian duo into the finals and give them a chance to challenge for the gold.However, another Indian mixed doubles pair of Payas Jain and Syndrela Das could not reach a medal spot. In the quarter-final match, they lost 0:3 to the Chinese Yi Chen and Huang Youzheng.

The Indian couple is trying to make up for the disappointment of the Asian Games

Harmeet and Yashaswini will be hoping to build on their performance after missing out on medals in the recent Asian Games.Harmeet competed in three events at the Games. In the men’s team event, India reached the round of 16 before losing to South Korea. He and Yashaswini were eliminated in the mixed doubles quarterfinals by China’s Lin Shidong and Kuai Man.Harmeet also partnered Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in the men’s doubles, but their campaign ended in the third round after losing to Japan’s Sora Matsushima and Shunsuke Togami.Yashaswini also returned without a medal. She lost to Japan’s Miwa Harimoto in the third round of the women’s singles. In the women’s doubles, she and Diya Chitale reached the quarterfinals, but lost 0-3 to China’s Fan Shuhan and Chen Yi.The semi-final now gives Harmeet and Yashaswini an opportunity to secure a historic result for India.