India's men's and women's table tennis teams, despite losing their pre-quarterfinal matches at the ITTF World Table Tennis Team Championships in Busan on Wednesday, are set to qualify for the Olympics for the first time ever— having secured the last world ranking spot.

This achievement marks the first time India will compete in the team event of an Olympics in table tennis since the sport was introduced at the Beijing 2008 Games. The official team rankings will be announced on March 4, but calculations indicate that both Indian teams have successfully clinched their spots for Paris.

“The men’s and the women’s teams played very well and we’re proud of them. We’re waiting for the official announcement that we have qualified for the Paris Olympics, which will come on the 5th of March,” Kamlesh Mehta, Table Tennis Federation of India general secretary, said.

India's men's and women's teams faced defeats in their respective pre-quarterfinal matches at the World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals 2024 in Busan, South Korea on Wednesday. India's top player Manika Batra, ranked 36th in the world, started off strong with a 3-2 victory over Chen Szu-Yu, giving India an early lead. However, Sreeja Akula fell short with a 3-0 loss to Cheng I-Ching, leading to a tie with Chinese Taipei.

The Indian men's team, ranked 15th globally, was defeated 3-0 by 5th-ranked South Korea. Harmeet Desai, India's top-ranked player at 67th in the world, suffered a 3-0 defeat to Jang Woojin, while veteran Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran also faced losses, bringing an end to India's campaign.

On a brighter note, earlier in the day, the Indian women's team defeated Italy in the round of 32, while the men's team claimed victory against Kazakhstan to advance to the top 16.