WTT Budapest: Sathiyan/Manika storm into mixed doubles semi-finals

World No. 6 mixed doubles pair of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra are the only remaining contenders at the ongoing WTT Star Contender Budapest, which is a part of the European Summer Series 2022, as they have stormed into the semi-finals with an emphatic win.

In the singles and the women's doubles, all campaigns came to end after Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost to World No. 9 Dimitrij Ovtcharov in straight games 3-0 (5-11, 10-12, 8-11) and veteran Sharath Kamal also lost to reigning European Cup champion and World No. 8 Darko Jorgic 3-0 (11-6, 11-7, 12-10) and the World No. 4 duo of Manika Batra and Archana Kamath also couldn't progress and lost 3-1(11-6, 6-11, 11-9, 11-5) to World No. 33 Taiwanese duo of Cheng Hsien-Tzu and Liu Hsing-Yin.

However, in the mixed doubles, the CWG-bound pair of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra were spot-on against World No. 11 Spanish duo Maria Xiao and Alvaro Robles, winning 3-0 (3-11, 6-11, 5-11) to move into the semi-finals of the WTT Star Contender event.

Up next, Sathiyan and Manika will have to take on the World No. 4 Japanese pair of Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata for a place in the finals. The Japanese pair are highly seasoned and are even 2021 World Championships silver medallists in mixed doubles.