Shrugging off the disappointment of a 1-3 semi-final loss to England, Indian men's team spanked Nigeria 3-0 in third place play-off to clinch the bronze in the Commonwealth Games' table tennis competition.
The Indian women's team had to be content with a silver medal after going down 0-3 to top seeds Singapore in the final, while their men counterparts lost the semi-final to England and crash out of the Commonwealth Games table tennis competition on Friday. Nothing went right for the defending champions, including Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal, in the final-four clash, which they lost 1-3 at the Yamuna Sports Complex.
Top seed Gao Ning will not take Indian table tennis' biggest hope Achanta Sharath Kamal lightly in case the two paddlers come face to face in the singles event of the Commonwealth Games.Sharath has, in the past, given the Singapore-based paddler some tough competitions, and Gao is wary of that.
Not many Indian players will go as defending champions at the upcoming Commonwealth Games but the table tennis team has at least two, one as a team.
Women formed the core of India's stupendous day four at the 21st Commonwealth Games where a 16-year-old Manu Bhaker delivered a record-shattering shooting gold medal and the table tennis team shocked fancied defending champions Singapore to clinch the top honours for the first time in the event.
Olympian Neha Aggarwal and Soumi Mondal moved into the semi-finals after thumping victories in the table tennis competition at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune on Wednesday. In the boys' singles, sixth seed Soumyajit Ghosh and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran also stormed into the semi-final league.
A summary of Indian athletes' performance on Day 7 of the Games.
India were ousted from the men's championship division when England beat them 3-2 in the pre-quarterfinals
Achanta Sharath Kamal is pitted against Mohamed Boudjadja of Algeria in the first round of the men's singles while Mouma Das faces Nanthana Komwong of Thailand in the women's singles.
The shooters bagged three gold and one silver medal in five events that took India's tally to four gold and three silver after two days.
Neha Aggarwal and Soumi Mondal were beaten in the semi-finals in straight games in the girls' singles of the table tennis competition of the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune on Thursday. Neha was beaten by Isabelle Li 5-11, 6-11, 6-11, 9-11 in just 28 minutes, while Soumi Mondal was victim of another Singaporean, Kai Xin Zena Sim, losing 14-16, 10-12, 4-11, 4-11.
Sreeshankar said featuring consistently at top international events, like the Diamond Leagues, will be his focus going forward.
India just about managed to cling to men's second division berth at the World Table Tennis championship.
Rediff.com introduces you to the athletes who have brought India glory in Birmingham.
Batra will now take on Singapore's Jian Zeng in the last eight-clash later tonight.
Mouma Das played a stellar role in a 3-2 victory over Canada in the play-off at the Commonwealth Games
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday.
The domination of home paddlers could be gauged from the fact that all finals on Monday featured only the Indians.
India cricket captain Virat Kohli and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu were on Monday recommended for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna by the awards selection committee.
Indian Olympic Association's acting president Anil Khanna called it a 'gender-neutral contingent' with 108 men and 107 women being part of the touring party.
Commonwealth and national champion Sharath Kamal turned in a smart display to defeat Boudjadja Mohamed in the first round of the men's singles table tennis competition.
The star Indian paddler is not taking too much pressure and wants to keep her focus.
Modi on Saturday hosted the Indian contingent at his residence to felicitate the players in New Delhi.
India's leading table tennis player Sharath Kamal, who was ignored for Padma Shri, feels the existing awards application system makes the athletes beg for the honour.
Achanta Sharath Kamal lost his second round match to 25th ranked Lai Chak Ko of Hong Kong.
Manika Batra, who has become toast of the nation after her sensational run at the Gold Coast Games, is hoping that she has done enough to spark a table tennis revolution in India like Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu did for badminton.
A look at how India's athletes fared on Day 2 at the 2022 Commonwealth Games:
Shooters Suma Shirur and Deepali Deshpande are unhappy over the sport being left out of the 2022 Commonwealth Games
The Chennai paddler feels that it's about time that he changes colour of the medal to gold during the upcoming edition in Gold Coast.
Table tennis player Manika Batra, who will be conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award this year, said that the accolade would spur her to bring more laurels for the country.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, on Saturday, felicitated 2018 Commonwealth Games medallists Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu among others at Pragathi Bhavan.
India's table tennis star Manika Batra alleged that national coach Soumyadeep Roy asked her to throw a match during the Olympic qualifiers in March and that was the main reason she refused his help during the Tokyo Games.
The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) on Tuesday termed Manika Batra's decision to not take the help of national coach Soumyadeep Roy during her matches at the Tokyo Olympics as a brazen 'act of indiscipline'.
India's 572 athletes hope to return home with an overflowing treasure chest of medals.
Indian contingent would be aiming to make it all good with strong medal-winning performances when the acutely-low-on-buzz Commonwealth Games start
The sheer diversity of medal winners was a heartwarming aspect of the Games for India. There were medals from squash, although not gold, there were nine medals from boxing, 12 from wrestling, 16 from shooting and nine from weightlifting.
The committee also picked 19 sportspersons for the Arjuna Award, including the likes of cricketers Ravindra Jadeja and Poonam Yadav, track and field stars Tejinder Pal Singh Toor, Mohammed Anas and Swapna Barman.
Mountaineer Bachendri Pal was, on Friday, conferred with the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award, while Gautam Gambhir, BajranG Punia and Sunil Chhetri, among others, received the Padma Shri.
Indian paddlers continued their impressive run as they outshone Malaysia to cruise into the semifinals of both men's and women' team events on day three of competitions in the Commonwealth Games on Saturday.
A top official from the national federation of a prominent Olympic sport asked if Batra would deem the competition good enough if shooting is brought back into the CWG fold.
