India’s dream of qualifying for the men’s team event in Tokyo Olympics ended when Czech Republic inflicted a 3-1 defeat in the first playoff match of the World Team Qualification Tournament here late on Saturday.
A few hours after the women team failed to qualify, the men also suffered the same fate.
With World No. 30 G. Sathiyan losing to 45th ranked Pavel Sirucek and 166th ranked Tomas Polansky, Sharath Kamal provided the lone consolation win in the tie.
The Indians will now play the singles qualification tournament in Thailand in April to book their places to Tokyo.
Playoff (men):
Czech Republic bt India 3-1 (Tomas Polansky and Lubomir Jancarik bt Sharath Kamal and Harmeet Desai 12-14, 11-5, 11-9, 11-9; Pavel Sirucek bt G. Sathiyan 12-10, 13-11, 11-9; Lubomir Jancarik lost to Sharath Kamal 11-6, 7-11, 8-11, 8-11; Polansky bt Sathiyan 14-16, 12-10, 12-14, 11-8, 11-9.)
