Sreeja Akula lone Indian to win opener

Sreeja Akula was the only Indian to win on the opening day of the Asian Cup 2025 table tennis tournament in Shenzhen, the People’s Republic of China, on Wednesday.

Paris 2024 Olympian Sreeja Akula was the first Indian table tennis player in action at the Universiade Sports Center and the world No. 29 put on a dominant display to beat Aia Mohamed of Qatar 11-7, 11-5, 11-4 in straight games.

Part of Group 1 in the Asian Cup 2025 women’s singles draw, Sreeja Akula will face China’s Sun Yingsha in her next match in the tournament.

Both the men’s and women’s singles events at the Asian Cup 2025 follow the same format.

The 32 players have been divided into eight groups of four each for Stage 1 of the competition and the top two from each group will advance to Stage 2, which will be played in a knockout format.

Sharath Kamal, India’s highest-ranked men’s player in the tournament, meanwhile, lost his opening match.

The Indian table tennis veteran, 42nd in the world rankings, was beaten 11-4, 11-4, 11-8 by world No. 3 Liang Jingkun of China.

Kamal’s next opponent from Group 3 in the men’s draw will be Japan’s Sora Matsushima.

Ayhika Mukherjee, ranked 77th in the world, was in action next and lost her tournament opener against world No. 20 Shi Xunyao of China.

She was beaten 11-8, 11-7, 13-11 in straight games and will face Thailand’s Suthasini Sawettabut in her next Group 8 match in the women’s section.

World No. 70 Harmeet Desai also succumbed to a loss against An Jae-hyun of the People’s Republic of Korea.

He went down 11-5, 11-7, 10-12, 11-6 in a match that lasted 35 minutes and will face Kazakhstan's Kirill Gerassimenko in his next Group 8 clash.

Meanwhile, world No. 60 Manav Thakkar put up a good fight against Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-ju, 14th in the WTT rankings, but lost 11-9, 11-9, 11-9.

Thakkar, who is in Group 7 at the Asian Cup 2025, will square off against Singapore's Izaac Quek on Thursday.

Yashaswini Ghorpade was in action in the last match of the day and she lost the contest 11-9, 11-9, 11-5 against Cheng I-Ching of Chinese Taipei.

Ghorpade’s next opponent from Group 5 will be Thailand’s Orawan Paranang.

Manika Batra, who won a bronze medal at the last edition in 2022, had withdrawn from this year’s tournament due to injury.

Asian Cup 2025 table tennis: Day 1 India results

Men’s singles

Liang Jingkun (CHN) bt Sharath Kamal 11-4, 11-4, 11-8

An Jae-hyun (KOR) bt Harmeet Desai 11-5, 11-7, 10-12, 11-6

Lin Yun-ju (TPE) bt Manav Thakkar 11-9, 11-9, 11-9

Women’s singles

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