Harmeet Desai, Yashaswini Ghorpade win mixed doubles bronze at Asian TT Championships

Good news for Indian table tennis has come from Tashkent. The Indian pair of Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade won the bronze medal in mixed doubles at the Asian Table Tennis Championships 2026 held in the Uzbek capital. With this medal, the two have made history.

The medal comes after a wait of 72 years. India's last medal in mixed doubles at the Asian Table Tennis Championships came in 1954, when the Indian pair of Yatin and Meena won silver at the event held in Singapore. India then had to wait a very long time for a medal in this event. Harmeet and Yashaswini have now ended that drought.

The quarterfinal was not easy for the pair. They were trailing 1-2 in the match and faced the threat of being knocked out. But the two staged a strong comeback and turned the match around. Showing good understanding in the deciding game, they beat South Korea 3-2. This win secured India's medal, as their place in the semifinal had already been decided.

In the semifinal, the Indian pair faced the Japanese pair of Sora Matsushima and Miwa Harimoto. The Japanese pair won all three games, 11-9, 11-9 and 11-8, to beat India. With this loss to Japan, the Indian pair's run ended and they had to settle for bronze.

Harmeet and Yashaswini are the third Indian mixed doubles pair to win a medal at this championship. Earlier, at the first Asian Table Tennis Championships in Singapore in 1952, the Indian pair of Gul Nashikwala and Kalyanpur Jayant won the mixed doubles gold.

The achievement has added a new record to the history of Indian table tennis.