New Delhi, July 21 (IANS) India edged out Chinese Taipei 3-2 to enter the semifinals of the U-18 category at the Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships here Wednesday and assured themselves of at least a bronze in the competition.

World No. 24 Soumyajit Ghosh and Harmeet Desai (36) won their matches against higher-ranked Tzu-Hsiang Hung to clinch the issue for India.

Ghosh beat World No. 8 Tzu-Hsiang 11-9, 5-11, 12-10, 12-10 in the first singles and Desai, after losing his earlier match, won the decider against Taipei's best player 14-16, 11-6, 11-7, 11-8.

"I lost the fifth match while playing in the World Junior Championships last year. So I was really keen on making up for it this time. He was tough but I am glad I pulled it off," Harmeet told IANS.

G. Sathiyan won the third singles against Chia-Lang Hsu 12-10, 11-8, 8-11, 4-11, 11-7.

Chia-Sheng Lee won both his matches to keep Taipei in the contest. He was too strong against Desai in the second singles and later got the better of Ghosh in the reverse singles to level the tie at 2-2.

Earlier in the day, India defeated Hong Kong 3-1 and Jordan 3-0 to top their group.

The hosts, however, went out of medal contention in the other categories.

The U-15 cadet boys, who beat higher-ranked Japan in the group stage Wednesday, went down 0-3 to South Korea in the quarterfinals. They will now fight it out for the 5-8 positions Friday.

The junior girls were no match for top-seeds China in the quarterfinals and lost in straight games.

The top five teams in all categories qualify for the World Junior Championship in Bahrain in September.