India team squandered a 2-0 lead against Austria, seeded 11, to go down in the men’s Championship Division of the world team table tennis championship in Halmstad, Sweden on Wednesday.
In the previous round, 13th seeded India had registered a fantastic fight back after being 0-2 down to defeat Croatia 3-2 and keep their hopes of making it to the round of 16 alive. However, it was not to be India’s day despite a good start and their campaign ended in the group stage itself.
In the first contest, veteran Sharath Kamal Achanta beat Stefan Fegerl 11-7, 18-17, 11-8 to give India a strong start. This was followed by Sathiyan Gnanasekaran notching a hard-fought win over Robert Gardos 11-4, 11-6, 7-11, 15-13
This should have put India in a comfortable position. However, Austria began the recovery after India’s top two had done their bit in the first clash. First Daniel Habesohn beat Harmeet Desai 11-6, 8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-6.
However, India were banking on their two most experienced players to keep then afloat in the reverse fixtures. But both Sharath and Sathiyan went down to make it a 3-2 win for the 11th seeds.
Gardos defeated Sharath 11-2, 11-8, 11-9 and Fegerl turned the table on Sathiyan lost yet another long-drawn match 11-13, 11-9, 11-7, 11-9.
India will now have to play for the 13 to 24 position.
For the women, the task is to no stay in the Championship Division after being sixth in the group. In the contest for positions 13 to 24, Manika Batra and Co will play Luxembourg.
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