Table Tennis World Championships | Four Indians enter main round

Three Indian female table-tennis players Suthirta Mukherjee, Madhurika Patkar and Archana Kamath will join Manika Batra, who qualified directly, in the main draw of the World Championships. Patkar defeated Catherine Spicer of Trinidad and Tobago 11-3, 11-8, 11-3, 11-6 while Mukherjee edged past Switzerland’s Rachel Moret by 14-12, 12-10, 11-8, 11-9 points. In another match on Monday, National Champion Kamath managed to beat Slovak paddler Eva Odorova 4-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-6, 11-5. All the three Indian female players topped the respective groups and made it to the next round of the competition in Budapest.

Amalraj and Thakkar were the two Indians in the men’s qualifiers. While Amalraj was knocked out of the World Championships after losing to Tom Jarvis, Thakkar topped the group and qualified for the main draw. He will now join India’s top paddlers G Sathiyan and Sharath Kamal in the main draw of the tournament. Thakkar has beaten Nicholas Tio of the USA by 11-6, 11-9, 13-11, 12-14, 11-3 points to book his place in the main draw.

On the other hand, Sathiyan-Sharath and Manav-Amalraj have got direct entries to the main draw of the doubles event in the men’s category. In the women’s doubles Manika Batra and Archana Kamath have received a direct entry from India while Patkar and Mukherjee will have to play the qualifiers to book a place as the second pair from India.