WTT Star Contender Doha: Ayhika-Sutirtha makes a first-round exit

India's no.1 women's doubles pairing of Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee made a first-round exit from the WTT Star Contender in Doha, Qatar on Wednesday.

However, the third-seeded men's doubles pairing of Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah and the fourth-seeded mixed doubles pair of Manush and Diya Chitale progressed to the quarterfinals.

Poor start to the year for Mukherjee Sisters

The day started with the experienced Indian women's doubles pairing of Ayhika and Sutirtha lost (1-3) against the Japanese pair of Miwa Harimoto and Miyuu Kihara in their round of 16 clash.

It was not a good start as the Indian pair made a lot of errors and conceded the first two games. They bounced back in the third game with an improved game but eventually lost the fourth game.

The Indian pair had plenty of good results in the last couple of years, and they will try to regain that momentum this year in the coming tournaments.

In the women's singles category, Diya Chitale also made an early exit, losing a hard-fought five-game (2-3) match against Jieni Shao of Portugal in the round of 64.

Manush into quarters of men's and mixed doubles

Manush Shah had good outings as he reached the quarterfinals in the men's and mixed doubles categories with his partners Manav Thakkar and Diya Chitale, respectively.

Manush and Diya got better of the Hong Kong pairing of Kwan To Yiu and Wing Lam Ng in four games (11-8, 7-11, 11-2, 11-4), whereas Manush and Manav took a comfortable 3-0 victory against home favourites.

In addition, the pairing of Sharath Kamal and Snehit Suravajjula also made their way to the quarterfinal with a 3-1 win against the home pairing of Mohammed and Abdullah

However, the mixed doubles pairing of Manav and Manika Batra had a first-round exit, losing in straight games (9-11, 9-11, 4-11) to the Chinese pairing of Chen Yuanyu and Chen Yi.