Table Tennis
WTT Budapest: Sathiyan, Sharath progress in singles, Manika/Sathiyan into mixed doubles quarters
While Sharath Kamal and G. Sathiyan entered the second round in singles, the WR 6 pair of Sathiyan/Manika made it till quarters at the WTT Star Contender European Summer Series 2022.
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra (Source: WTT)
It's been a somewhat successful outing for the Indian paddlers at the WTT Star Contender Budapest, but for an upset in the women's singles. It was Manika Batra who was ousted by China's Liu Weishan after their close encounter finished 3-2 in favour of Weishan.
In the men's singles, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Sharath Kamal doled out a 3-0 beating to their respective opponents. The former defeated Taiwan's Feng yi-Hsin while the latter got the better of Slovakia's Lubomir Pistej.
The men's clean victories meant their progression into the Round of 32 of the competition. Sharath will face Slovenia's Darko Jorgic, the reigning European Cup champion and World No. 6 while Sathiyan will have to trump Germany's Dimitrij Ovtcharov.
While Batra wasn't unable to further her progress in the singles event, Sathiyan and she handed a dominating 3-0 defeat to Egyptian duo Khalid Assar and Yousra Helmy. Now, the World No. 6 mixed doubles pair will have to face Spain's Alvaro Robles and Maria Xiao in the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, the World No. 4 pair of Archana Kamath and Manika Batra are also scheduled to play today. They will go up against Cheng Hsien-Tzu and Liu Hsing-Yin.
All the participants will be looking to finish on a high note in this Budapest event as they aim for podium finishes at the upcoming Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
