Table Tennis
ITTF World Championships: Indian campaign ends with Diya-Yashaswini's exit
The duo lost in straight games to the fourth-seeded Japanese pair of Miwa and Miyuu.
Diya Chitale and Yashaswini Ghodpade in action at the 2025 ITTF World Championships. (Photo credit: WTT)
The last standing Indian women's doubles pair of Diya Chitale and Yashaswini Ghodpade suffered a third-round exit at the 2025 ITTF Table Tennis World Championships in Doha, Qatar on Wednesday.
The Indian duo fought hard but fell in straight games, 7-11, 8-11, 9-11, against the world no.6 Japanese pairing of Miyuu Kihara and Miwa Harimoto.
With this result, India's campaign at the 2025 ITTF World Championships concluded without a medal, marking the second straight edition where no Indian player advanced to the quarterfinals.
Diya and Yashaswini had a poor start as they were unable to find their rhythm in the opening game and made a couple of unforced errors on the returns. This made things easy for the Japanese duo in the first game.
In the second game, however, the Indian team showed marked improvement, with Yashaswini Ghorpade excelling through precise drop shots and strong defensive play. Yet, they fell short again.
In the final game, the Indian pair were ahead for the first time owing to a display of good defense to snub the Japanese attacking shots. This forced Miyuu and Miwa to change their tactics.
The Japanese pair showed their class and quickly pivoted to their new approach of enforcing cross-table forehand smashes. This drew unforced errors from the Indian duo who eventually caved in.
