Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lead Dabang Smashers to win against Warriors

Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lead Dabang Smashers to win against Warriors

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By SportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran piloted Dabang Smashers to a 6-1 win against Warriors in Ultimate Table Tennis. Both players defeated higher ranked opponents to register the wins against the Warriors and established Dabang Smashers at the top of the standings on Saturday.

Dabang Smashers collected 14 points, allowing only 7 to their opponents. In the opening game, Manika Batra registered an exciting win of 2-1 against the Sharath Kamal’s Warriors. The Commonwealth Games gold medalist defeated Sofia Polcanova, World no.18 and got two out of three games on “golden point”. Manika with an efficient use of backhand won by 11-10, 5-11, 11-10.

With a promising beginning, Sharath Kamal was able to win the first game with 11-10, but could hold against Japan's Yoshida Masaki and lost in the next two games with 5-11 and 8-11. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran claimed a victory of 3-1 for Smashers in the mixed doubles while teaming up with Japan's Sakura Mori. In the next singles, Sathiyan aced a surprisingly magnificent win against world no. 15 Chin-Yuan Chuang of Chinese Taipei.

Aged 17 years, Adriana Diaz, the youngest player of the tournament was the last straw in establishing Smashers victory. The Puerto Rican player claimed a win against Pooja Sahasrabuddhe by 3-0 and completed Smashers victory.

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