Indian men paddlers stun Singapore to reach final

Sathiyan Gnanasekeran (top R) and Harmeet Desai (top L) play against Malaysia's Leong Chee Feng (bottom L) and Javen Choong (bottom R) during the men’s team quarterfinal during the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. AFP

Gold Coast: The Indian men's table tennis team on Monday upstaged defending champions Singapore to enter the finals of the 21st Commonwealth Games here.

Following in the footsteps of the women's team, which stunned Singapore to clinch its maiden gold in the CWG, the men's team got the better of the Asian powerhouse 3-2.

Veteran Gao Ning was the only one who managed to record singles victories for Singapore.

The 35-year-old legend, a three-time gold medallist at CWG, defeated Harmeet Desai and G Sathiyan 3-0 and 3-1 respectively but the rest of his team fell apart against the Indians.

India's very own veteran star A Sharath Kamal won both his singles matches against Xue Jie Pang and Shao Feng Ethan Poh by similar margins of 3-0.

In the doubles, the combination of Sathiyan and Desai rallied for a 3-1 win over Pang and Poh to clinch the issue for India.

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