Sathiyan-Manika fail to secure Paris Olympics quota in mixed doubles

India's top mixed doubles pairing of Sathiyan and Manika had a disastrous outing as they missed out on the last chance of the Paris Olympics Quota  for India after a defeat against Malaysia in the quarterfinals of Olympic Mixed Doubles Qualifiers stage 2 in Havirov, Czech Republic on Friday.

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra suffered a heartbreaking 1-4 (9-11, 9-11, 9-11, 11-7, 8-11) defeat against a much lower-ranked Malaysian pairing of Karen Lyne and Javen Choong.

They made many errors on their back in the first few games which increased the confidence of the Malaysian pair who then started using some trick shots and forehand attacks.

The Indian pair pulled back one game in between after some improvement in defence but Choong-Lyne continued the attack and grabbed the match in 5 games.

This was the second opportunity for Manika-Sathiyan in this tournament to grab a Paris Olympics quota after a quarter-final exit against North korea in the first stage on Thursday. There are six available ranking quotas available in this category but the Indian pair is currently ranked outside the top 15 in the rankings.

Indian paddlers made a history this year by confirming the first ever team quotas in both men's and women's category at Olympics but now missing out on a mixed doubles quota will be a big setback for Manika and Sathiyan.

This could have been their second appearance at the Olympics as a pair after making their debut at Tokyo Olympics. The two Indians will now shift focus to make their way into the Indian team for the singles event at the Olympics. As, the team quota also offered two individual quotas in singles category.