Ayhika Mukherjee advances to quarters at WTT Feeder Budapest
In the WTT Feeder European Summer Series 2022, which is being held in Budapest from July 18 to July 22, Ayhika Mukherjee is the only remaining Indian paddler in the fray. Mukherjee defeated World No. 61 Liu Hsing-Yin of Chinese Taipei 4-1 in her round of 16 matches 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 11-8, 12-10.
Ayhika won a competitive match against Lee Ho Ching, a more experienced player from Hong Kong China, earlier in the day. At 52 minutes, the match between World No. 116 paddler Ayhika and World No. 52 paddler was only eight minutes short of reaching the one-hour mark. Ultimately, Ayhika prevailed, winning 4-2. (12-10, 4-11, 8-11, 11-6, 9-11, 10-12).
Ayhika, a Commonwealth champion in 2019, will compete against Honoka Hashimoto of Japan to go to the semifinals. In the meantime, seasoned Sharath Kamal succumbed to 15-year-old Felix Lebrun 4-0 (11-7, 11-4, 11-6, 16-14) in his pre-quarterfinal encounter after giving it his all.
The World No. 38-ranked Sharath Kamal had it easy against the World No. 69-ranked Felix Lebrun in the Round of 32 match winning comfortably 4-1 (3-11, 11-8, 5-11, 9-11, 12-14) to advance to the semifinals of the WTT Feeder Budapest competition, on Wednesday. Afterwards, Sharath Kamal will go to Birmingham to compete in the men's singles, men's doubles, and mixed doubles events at the 2022 Commonwealth Games alongside Sathiyan Gnanasekaran. The competition will begin on July 28.