Harmeet Desai Claims Indonesia Open TT Championship

India Table Tennis player Harmeet Desai continued his impressive run at the international tournaments as he clinched a gold medal in the ITTF Challenge Indonesia Open 2019 that is being held in Batam, Indonesia. The experienced India paddler defeated compatriot Amalraj Anthony in an all-Indian final in Indonesia to clinch the yellow medal.

Seeded 104 in the world, Harmeet looked right on course to win the titles as he took the opening game 11-9. However, Harmeet soon got a reality check that the contest was not going to be easy for him as Amalraj bounced back strongly to win the second game 11-9. However, Harmeet made a strong comeback and won the next two games by an indistinguishable margin of 11-9 to lead 3-1 in the match.

Amalraj who was not willing to hand an easy win tested Harmeet’s patience once again as he took the next game 12-10 to reduce the lead to 2-3. However, the reigning Commonwealth TT Champion upped the ante as he did not make any further mistake and went on to win the sixth game once again 11-9 to seal victory with an overall score on 4-2. This was Harmeet’s second international title of the year. Harmeet had won 21st Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship earlier in July.

Both Harmeet and Amlaraj had shown some great character and form in the tournament. Harmeet had defeated Yuto Kizikuri of Japan and Siu Hang Lam of Hong Kong with an identical score of 4-2 in quarterfinals and semifinals respectively to advance into the finals. Amlraj on the other hand had registered 4-0 victory over Joao Monteiro of Portugal and Ibrahima Diaw of Senegal in the race to final.

Earlier, both these players had joined forces in the men’s doubles event. The pair of Harmeet and Amalraj had reached the semifinals of the championship.