Table Tennis World Championships: Manika-Sathiyan becomes second Indian mixed doubles pair to reach quarterfinal

The Indian mixed doubles duo of Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran has reached the quarterfinals of the ongoing Table Tennis World Championships Final in Huston. The Indians registered a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Kanak Jha and Manyu Wang of the USA to advance to the final eight.

Manika and Sathiyan had a heartbreaking start to the match, losing the first two games 15-17 and 10-12 respectively. While the duo fought incredibly well to keep the Americans in check, they failed to close it off when needed. With their World Championships campaign quite visibly on the line, Batra and Sathiyan just about managed to edge past Jha and Wang 12-10 in the third game. 

This was all they needed for a confidence boost and the Indians all of a sudden imposed complete control over the match. From being in a very comfortable position, the Americans lost the fourth and fifth game 11-6 and 11-7 respectively to surrender the match 3-2.

This win for Batra and Sathiyan makes them the second-ever Indian mixed doubles pair to enter the quarterfinals of the Table Tennis World Championships after Randir Bhandari and Sayeed Sultana had made Quaterfinals in 1952.

Earlier in the day, Manika Batra combined with the young Archana Kamath to enter the quarterfinals of the women's doubles section with a 3-1 win over Hungary's Georgina Pota and Dora Madaraz. 

This is the first time since 2017 that the Individual Table Tennis World Championships final will see Indians competing in the quarterfinals. The women's doubles duo of Manika Batra and Mouma Das had then made it to the final eight.