Commonwealth Games
CWG 2022: Gold-favourites Manika Batra/G. Sathiyan crash out in Mixed Doubles
World No.6 pair of Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran suffered a shock exit 3-2 in the Mixed Doubles quarters of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 and will return without a medal in this category.
Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran
In a very surprising turn of affairs, World No. 6 pair of Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran fell to the Malaysian pair of Karen Lyne and Javen Choong in the Mixed Doubles quarterfinals of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022.
Heading into the Games as the clear medal favourites, the Indian pair was expected to win their clash against Malaysian given they are unseeded in the ITTF rankings.
The duo who won the bronze in the 2018 Gold Coast edition, lost a close thriller, 3-2.
Interestingly, Manika Batra had lost 3-0 to Karen Lyne in the women's team quarters against Malaysia as well. Lyne's ability to play against Batra's rubber has proven to be a point of concern for the top paddler.
On the other hand, Sharath Kamal and Sreeja Akula - the National Champion duo in singles, won their clash against World No. 68 pair of Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho, winning 3-2 to enter the semi-finals.
