Harmeet Desai's maiden Olympic campaign ends with second round exit

Paris: India's Harmeet Desai suffered a 0-4 loss against world no. 5 Felix Lebrun of France in the second round of the men's singles table tennis competition, ending his maiden Olympic campaign here on Sunday.

The 31-year-old from Surat couldn't settle into a rhythm to go down 8-11 8-11 6-11 8-11 against the 17-year-old local hopeful in 28 minutes, which brought the curtains down on India's campaign in men's singles competitions.

Harmeet, who was part of the side that clinched the team gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 and 2022, had progressed to the second round after a convincing 4-0 victory over Jordan's Zaid Abo Yaman on Saturday.

However, his performance against Lebrun was a far cry from his showing in the opening round match.

Harmeet came into the Olympics after playing in three preparatory tournaments and undergoing personal training in Germany.

Earlier, veteran Sharath Kamal, making his fifth Olympics appearance, lost 2-4 (12-10 9-11 6-11 7-11 11-8 10-12) to Deni Kozul of Slovenia ranked 86 places to make a shock exit.