Olympics 2021: 3 takeaways from Sathiyan Gnanasekaran's shocking loss against Lam Sium Hang in Round 2 of Table Tennis

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran's campaign at Olympics 2021 ended after he lost his Round 2 match against Hong Kong's Lam Sium Hang. World No. 37 Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost to World No. 95 Lam Sium Hang 7-11 11-7 11-4 11-5 9-11 10-12 6-11. The match lasted for 1 hour and 3 minutes. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran enjoyed a bye in Round 1 due to his world ranking.

Despite being the favorite to win the match against Lam Sium Hang, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran failed to play his best game and ended up on the losing side of a riveting table tennis contest.

An upsetting defeat for #IND’s Sathiyan Gnanasekaran as he let go of a 3-1 lead to lose 4-3 against #HKG’s Lam Siu Hang in the second round of the Men's Singles #TableTennis event at #Tokyo2020 🏓#Olympics #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/MCyM8rU9aD

— Sportskeeda India (@Sportskeeda) July 25, 2021

Here are three things we learned from Sathiyan Gnanasekaran's match at Olympics 2021

#1. Both players played an aggressive game initially

Both Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Lam Sium Hang were on the attack at the start of the match. With both players going for winners, the rallies did not last long. It was a testament to the high-levels of intensity they displayed. After the first three games, the tempo went down a little and the rallies became longer.

The longest rally in the first three games was 10 strokes long. However, as the match progressed the two players became defensive in their approach. The longest rallies of game 4, game 5, game 6 and game 7 was 17, 10, 18 and 15 strokes long, respectively. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran failed to capitalize as Lam Sium Hang strengthened his defense to eke out an upset win over his Indian counterpart.

#2. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran enjoyed playing short games

After Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost the opening game 7-11, he bounced back to win next three games 11-7 11-4 11-5. Game 2 lasted for 8 minutes while Game 3 and Game 4 lasted 6 minutes each. But as the games started to stretch, the Indian became uncomfortable and started conceding points. Game 5, Game 6 and Game 7 was 9 minutes, 11 minutes and 9 minutes long respectively. Lam Sium Hang won the last three games with ease to seal his win over Sathiyan.

#3. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran highlighted his strengths even in loss

Although Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost, he did put up a good fight. The paddler showcased good backhand strokes which is his strong suit. Also, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran was more in control of his serve than Lam Sium Hang. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran won 34 points on his own serve while compared to Lam Sium Hang's 31. Also, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran's most consecutive points win was 9 compared to Lam Sium Hang's 7.