Table Tennis / Asian Games 2026: Manush Shah, Diya Chitale Clinch Bronze In Mixed Doubles Table Tennis

 Toyota, Sep 25: Indian paddlers Manush Shah and Diya Chitale on Friday scripted history by clinching a bronze medal in the mixed doubles table tennis event at the Asian Games, despite falling short against reigning champions Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin in the semifinal.

The Chinese duo, popularly known as ‘Sha‑Tou’, outclassed the Indians 4‑0 at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium.

The Indian pair came into the semifinal after defeating four-time world medallists and World No.4 Wong Chun and Doo Ho in the quarterfinal 3-1. However, they could not replicate their strong performance in the semis as they were outdone by a much superior opponent.

They were up against the Olympic champions and two-time Asian Games winners in Wang and Sun, who are popularly known as 'Sha-Tou'. The Indians put a fight in the first game but lost 8-11. They were blown away in the second game, losing 5-11 before being 0-5 down in the third game.

The two staged a comeback and pushed the Chinese pair in the third game but lost it 8-11 before being blown away yet again in the third game 2-11 to lose the semifinal.

Manush and Diya are the second Indian mixed doubles pair to win a medal at the Asiad after Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra.

Earlier, Men's doubles pair of Harmeet Desai and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost their third round match to Japanese pair of Sora Matsushima and Shunsuke Togami 0-3. Indian Women's doubles pair of Yashaswini Ghorpade and Diya had earlier lost the third round match to China's Shuhan Fan and Yi Chen 0-3.
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Sreeja Akula and Syndrela Das had lost their Women's doubles round 3 match to China's Man Kuai and Manyu Wang 0-3, while Manav Thakkar went down to North Korea's Ryong Tae 2-4 in the Men's singles round 2 match.

Manush Shah had also lost the Men's doubles round 2 match with Manav against Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto and Hiroto Shinozuka 1-3.

Meanwhile, Yashaswini won her Women's singles round 2 clash against Syria's Hend Zaza 4-1.

--IANS