Table Tennis
WTT Feeder Beirut: Manush/Diya wins mixed doubles title
Manush, Diya clinch the Mixed doubles title at WTT Feeder Beirut with a win over Manav Thakkar and Archana Girish Kamath
Indian mixed doubles pairing of Manush Utpal Shah and Diya Parag Chitale won the mixed doubles championship at WTT Feeder Beirut surpassing another Indian pair of Manav Thakkar and Archana Girish Kamath in the final on Thursday.
Manush and Diya, ranked 48, won 3-1 (11-6, 10-12, 11-6, 11-6) win over 36 ranked, Manav and Archana in this final lasting for half an hour.
The match started very tightly with some good attacking shots from both the pairs but then Manush started dictating the game with his angle shots and took the first blow in the match to take the game 11-6.
The second game was going much closer and Manav-Archana was on game point but then Manav slipped and the match went into deuce but they quickly recovered to take this game 12-10.'
In the third game, Archana was under a lot of pressure as both Manush and Diya were targeting her and then she made a few unforced errors to drop the game, 6-11. Similarly, Manush and Diya found some good shots to force errors from the opponent and clinched their title.
Manav will be eyeing the title in the other two categories as he also reached the final of the men's doubles and men's singles categories. He upset the second-seeded and world no.45, An Jaehyun of South Korea in a straight-game (11-9, 11-8, 12-10) affair to reach the final.
He will face an experienced Indian mate in Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in the final, who also upset his semifinal opponent, top-seeded Chuang Chih-Yuan of Chinese Taipei, ranked 39, in a 4-game affair 11-8, 11-13, 11-8, 11-9.