The Indian Men’s Table Tennis team finished their journey at the 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Halmstad on a bright note, finishing 13th and securing a place in the Championship Division of the competition for the year 2020. The Women’s team battled it out hard against some mighty opponents too but were outdone by some good display of Table Tennis by their adversaries.

Riding on their success at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, the Indian paddlers were in high spirits going into the competition. Coupled with the fact that this was the first time both the Men's and Women's Team had qualified for the Championship Division of the championships, it was a special occasion.

The Men's Team’s campaign took off with India taking on France in their first group match. The team boasted of Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty, and Amalraj Anthony. In what was a close encounter, the French paddlers prevailed as they took the tie 3-2.

The Men’s team did not dwell on their loss to France for too long and tasted victory when they defeated Poland 3-2 in their second group match. Having won one and lost one, India then faced the Republic of Korea, but were completely outplayed as they lost 3-0 against their higher-ranked opponents.

Sharath Kamal and Co. quickly pulled up their socks and registered a 3-2 victory over Croatia and went into the last tie, a do-or-die match against Austria, which would guarantee a place in the Round of 16. The Indian contingent came up just short, as they were beaten 3-2.

With this, the Indian Men's Team went into the round of 13-24 places classification match. With the objective shifting to qualifying for the Championship Division of 2020 World Team Table Tennis Championships, India first faced Singapore, a tie they won emphatically with a score-line that read 3-0.

In the next game, India faced France, a repeat of the earlier group match. This time, the team was determined to make amends for the earlier loss, and in what turned out to be a mouth-watering tie, India came out with flying colours, as they won 3-2.

India began the final match of the campaign against Romania with a defeat in their first game, but went on to take the match 3-1 and with that, finished 13th in the Championship, the icing on the cake was a place for themselves in the 2020 World Team Table Tennis Championships.

The Indian Women’s team went into the competition with a strong line-up, the same from the Gold-winning outing at the Commonwealth Games; Manika Batra, Mouma Das, Madhurika Patkar, Pooja Sahasrabudhe and Sutirtha Mukherjee.

It took a while for the Women’s team to find their feet and victory in the competition, starting in a group consisting of China, Singapore, Sweden Belarus and Russia. With no luck in the group stages, the win came in a 13-24 places classification match against Luxembourg, before bowing out of the competition with a loss to Hungary.

The Indian team return home full of experiences, and exposure to non-stop, world-class Table Tennis, and will look to continue their journey in the game as they return to the CEAT UTT after a well-earned rest.