Manav-Manush are first Indian men's doubles pair to reach semis of a WTT Star Contender

India's no.1 men's doubles pair of Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah reached the semi-final of WTT Star Contender with a comfortable 3-0 win against the Hong Kong's Kwan Man Ho and Lam Siu Hang in Doha on Thursday.

With this win, Thakkar and Shah are now the first Indian men’s doubles pair to reach the semi-finals of star contender event.

The Indians entered the tournament as the third-seeded pair and lived up to the expecations by reaching the semi-finals with two back-to-back straight-game victories.

Thakkar-Shah, ranked 10th in the world, will now take on the winner of the match between China's Xu-Xianga and Slovenia's Kozul-Jorgic in the semi-final later in the day. 

On the other hand, the men's doubles pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Snehit Suravajjula, the mixed doubles pairing of Shah and Diya Chitale, bowed out of the competition, losing their respective quarter-finals.

Early exit for Manika; Sreeja into Pre-quarters

In the women's singles category, India no.1 Sreeja Akula started her campaign with a comfortable (3-1) victory against Jieni Shao of Portugal in the round of 32.

She has a tough match in the next round where she will take on the fifth-seeded and world no.11, Qian Tianyi of China in the Round of 16 on Friday.

Meanwhile, Manika Batra faced an early exit from the competition, losing (1-3) in the round of 32 against the lower-ranked Dutch player, Britt Eerland.

She won the opening game (12-10) but couldn't maintain the pressure and lost three games on the trot, 8-11, 8-11, 3-11.