Indian men finish 26th: World TT

India's men's team finished 26th in the team event of the World table tennis championships in Osaka, after being routed 0-3 by Russia in the play-off for minor placings on Saturday.

In the absence of Chetan Baboor, S Raman and Soumyadeep Roy put up a brave fight but could only extend their opponents.

In the first rubber, Subhajit Saha was beaten 18-21, 18-21 by Aleksei Smirnov. Raman did well to take the opening game against Maksim Shmyrev in the second rubber, but lost the next two as he went down 21-19, 20-22, 11-21.

The Russians made it 3-0 when Evgeni Fadeev beat Roy 21-11, 18-21, 21-8.

On Friday, the Indian men had beaten Nigeria 3-2 to earn the 25th-26th positions play-off berth.

The women's team finished 35th after beating Australia 3-0.

National champion Poulami Ghatak gave India the lead, beating Tammy Gough 21-14, 22-20. Mouma Das beat May Cho 24-22, 21-17 while M S Mythili accounted for Peri Campbell-Innes 21-14, 21-13.