Photo with the French team

In today's first match against France the expected happened. France, the finalists in the previous world men's championships proved too good for the fighting Indians. Siddharth Suchde playing at no.3 was on court first against Renan Lavigne who had had to toil for a 3-1 victory. Sid hung in well but the more experienced Renan handled the crunch points better.
Ritwik went next against world no.1 Thierry Lincou who was simply too quick, too accurate and too miserly with his errors. Ritwik on several occasions during the game did express awe at his pace and mastery of the game.
Young Saurav played the last match against Gregory Gaultier who was quick to the ball and more impressively had the ability to play an array of shots from anywhere on the court with the same sort of swing.

Even though we lost 3-0, we relished the occasion, playing some of the best players in the world.
Tomorrow as the caption goes "is another day". We have to get into the top 12 and to do that, Ireland have to be beaten. Anything can happen in a team event but we are certainly looking at a victory.

Full results and ranking of players listed below
Renan Lavigne (33) bt Siddharth Suchde (145) 9-5, 4-9, 9-4, 9-2
Thierry Lincou (1) bt Ritwik Bhattacharya (58) 9-2, 9-1, 9-0
Gregory Gaultier (11) bt Saurav Ghosal (67) 9-3, 9-1, 9-5