WTT Feeder Varazdin: Harmeet Desai beats world no. 37 Kirill Gerassimeko, reaches quarters

Indian paddler Harmeet Desai, on Friday night, stunned world no. 37 Kirill Gerassimeko of Kazakhstan in straight games to reach the quarterfinals of the WTT Feeder Varazdin in Croatia.

Harmeet, a key member of the Indian men's team's historic qualification to the 2024 Paris Olympics, displayed his tremendous grit and determination to get better off the higher-ranked player 11-8, 11-3, 11-9. 

This was the first time Harmeet beat Kirill.

Earlier, Harmeet defeated Adrien Rassenfosse in Round of 32.

In the quarterfinals, Harmeet will take on An Jaehyun of Korea. 

The Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the team championship will look to reach the final and win the title. 

Sathiyan Gunanasekaran was knocked out in the Round of 32 by his fellow Indian paddler Snehit Suravajjula. Snehit won the match in straight games 11-9, 11-2, 11-7.

Snehit's winning run, however, ended in the next round as he lost to Eduard Lonescu 5-11, 3-11, 7-11.

In women's singles, Yashaswini Ghorpade lost in the pre-quarterfinals against Lee Eunhye 7-11, 8-11, 4-11.

Earlier, Ghorpade reached the Round of 16 winning a thrilling five-gamer against Zhu Chengzhu.

Also losing was the mixed doubles pairing of Sathiyan and Manika Batra as they lost to Lubomir Pistej and Barbora Balazova in a five-gamer (11-9, 6-11, 11-4, 11-13, 12-14).