Paris, July 28: 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. Paris Olympics 2024: India's Table Tennis Veteran Sharath Kamal Falls to Slovenia's Deni Kozul.

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. Manika Batra Gets Off to Winning Start at Paris Olympics 2024, Beats Great Britain’s Anna Hursey To Enter Round of 32 in Women’s Singles Table Tennis Event.

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.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)