Asian Table Tennis Championships 2025: Indian men’s team lose 3

The Indian men’s team’s hopes of winning a medal from the Asian Table Tennis Team Championships 2025 ended on Sunday with a 3-0 loss to Hong Kong China in the quarter-finals at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, on Sunday.

India is hosting the continental table tennis tournament after 16 years.

World No. 72 Manush Shah began the proceedings for the home team against Wong Chun-ting, 48th in the men’s singles table tennis rankings, and lost 3-0 (11-5, 11-9, 13-11).

Manav Thakkar, India’s best-ranked men’s singles player at world No. 39, offered a stiffer resistance to the 59th-ranked Chan Baldwin in the second match before succumbing to a 3-2 (11-8, 11-8, 10-12, 9-11, 11-8) defeat.

Playing to keep India alive in the contest, the young Ankur Bhattacharjee put up a spirited effort but eventually went down 3-2 (7-11, 11-9, 12-14, 11-6, 11-7) against Lam Siu Hang.

The loss means India will now be contesting in 5-8th place classification matches for a best-possible finish within the range.

Manika Batra and the Indian women’s team will start its campaign from Monday, also from the quarter-finals. Their opponents are yet to be determined.

The 28th edition of the Asian Championships also serves as qualifiers for the 2026 ITTF World Team Championships Finals, with the top 13 teams securing their berths for next year’s global showpiece in London.

Both the Indian men’s and women's teams have, however, already qualified for the 2026 World Team Championships, through the South Asian Regional Championships in Kathmandu in August.

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