WTT Contender Muscat 2022 | Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai advance into the semi finals of men's doubles

Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai, who recently won a gold medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022, have kept India's medal chances very much alive in what has otherwise been a lacklustre performance by the Indian table tennis players. Most of them crashed out at the pre-quarterfinal stage.

Al Jassasi Bader and Mutawa Mohammed Al, a local couple from Oman, were defeated in the quarterfinals by Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai 3-0 (11-5, 11-2, 12-10) in a 14-minute barrage to advance to the semi-finals. Next, for a spot in the finals, the Chinese team of Guankai Niu and Linwei Sai will compete against the World No. 38 pair from India.

In other news, Ukrainian Margaryta Pesotska, the World No. 38 in singles, defeated Manika Batra in straight games, 3-0. Additionally, Chen Xingtong of China, ranked 20th in the world, defeated Diya Chitale 3-0.

Sreeja Akula and Diya Chitale gave a walkover in the women's doubles event, but World No. 5 Archana Kamath and Manika Batra failed their return match against the lower-ranked Chinese team of Chen Xingtong and Qian Tianyi, 3-0, in the quarterfinals. In the mixed doubles, Liu Yebo and Chen Xingtong of China put up a valiant fight against Archana Kamath and Manav Thakkar, but they ultimately prevailed 3-0.