The Indian table tennis team created history at the ITTF World Youth C’ships 2025. The U-19 boys’ team won their semifinals match against Chinese Taipei, defeating them by 3-2 on Monday, November 24, 2025. The team is composed of star players like Ankur Bhattacharjee, PB Abhinandh, and Priyanuj Bhattacharya. India will next play for the gold medal finals match against Japan.
In the semifinals, Bhattacharjee led India to a good start and got his first win against Hsu Hsien-Chia. In the quarterfinal match, India earlier defeated France by a score of 3-0 to reach the semifinal match against Chinese Taipei.
However, the opponent overpowered in the next round, with Kuo Guan-Hong beating Abhinandh by 3-1. In addition to that, Bhattacharya leveled India back to the lead with a hard-fought battle win over Lin Chin-Ting by 3-2.
Chinese Taipei stood out in the next round, with Kuo taking down Bhattacharjee at 3-0, but overcoming the loss, Abhinandh strikes back with a 3-0 win over Hsu.
Earlier in the tournament, India had beaten France 3-0 in the quarter-finals to set up a semi-final clash against Chinese Taipei.
U15 girls wins bronze
Besides the men’s team, India’s U15 girls’ team took home the bronze medal after suffering a 0-3 loss to South Korea in the semi-finals match. The girls’ team comprised players like Ankolika Chakraborty, Divyanshi Bhowmick, Naisha Rewaskar, and Ananya Muralidharan. Earlier in the quarter-finals, the team defeated Germany by 3-1.
The ITTF World Youth Championships 2025 is scheduled to be held from November 23 to November 30 at the BT Arena in Cluj Napoca, Romania. The tournament has some of the world’s rising table tennis stars taking the stage, competing for eight days for the U19 and U15 age category titles. The ITTF World Youth Championship has given rise to and launched the careers of champions such as Ma Long, Fan Zhendong, and Sun Yingsha.
(Inputs sourced from ITTF)
