WTT Contender Novo Mesto | Diya Chitale makes it to main draw in women's singles

Rising Indian table tennis player Diya Chitale beat Sreeja Akula to progress to the main draw of the women’s singles at the WTT Contender Novo Mesto 2021 in Slovenia on Wednesday, as per a report in Olympics.com. In the final qualifying match, Chitale, the world no.15 in youth rankings, won against compatriot Akula 3-2 (11-8, 10-12, 11-7, 7-11, 12-10).

This means that Chitale will be the only Indian in the main draw of the women's singles. Just before the start, star paddler Manika Batra had opted out of the tournament. On the other hand, Swastika Ghosh lost out to Liu Weishan of China 1-3, thus ending her hopes of entering the main draw. 

The 18-year-old won the second game, and things were level 1-1 then. But later in the match, the Indian ran out of steam, while Weishan moved into the next round rather comfortably.

As far as the men's singles is concerned, six Indians were in the fray to make it to the main round, but all them, including the likes of Manav Thakkar and Commonwealth Games winner Anthony Amalraj, were knocked out. Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Harmeet Desai had directly qualified for the main draw and begin their campaign on Thursday.