Nigeria Open | Ronit Bhanja grabs silver; Abhishek Yadav and Sarthak Gandhi secure bronze
Indian paddlers Ronit Bhanja, Abhishek Yadav and Sarthak Gandhi managed to work their way to the podium at the recently concluded 2018 ITTF Challenge, Seamaster Nigeria Open. While Bhanja won silver in the U-21 men’s singles event, Yadav and Gandhi grabbed bronze in the men’s doubles category.
With the senior table tennis team practicing in Indonesia at the moment ahead of this month’s prestigious Asian Games, the U-21 Indian players battled it out against the best youngsters of the game at the recently concluded 2018 ITTF Challenge Seamaster Nigeria Open.
The trio of Ronit Bhanja, Abhishek Yadav, and Sarthak Gandhi worked their way towards winning a medal at the tournament. Bhanja, who has reached a career-high ranking of 12 in India, bagged silver in the finals of the men’s singles category. Ronit had earlier towered over Mahmoud Helmy from Egypt and won the semi-finals with a score of 3-0. However, Shaobo Wang of
In the men's doubles open category, Abhishek Yadav and Sarthak Gandhi defeated the Egyptian pair of Helmy and Ziad Wael 3-1 in the first round to get off to good start in Nigeria. They faced another Egyptian pair in the quarters in the form of Khalid Assar and Mohamed El-Beiali who had beaten the Indian pair of Ronit Bhanja and Mudit Dani in the opening match.
Abhishek and Sarthak eventually emerged victorious by a score of 3-2. The Indian pair put up a valiant fight in the semifinals against the French pair of Alexandre Robinot and Joe Seyfried but lost 9-11, 11-13, 6-11 and had to settle for bronze.
In the women's doubles, the young Indian duo of Sreeja Akula and Mallika Bhandarkar progressed into the quarterfinals as they beat the local pair of Agnes Onoja and Alimot Ayinla in the first round. However, they ended up losing 2-3 to the eventual winners from China, Chen Sun
