Asian Cup TT | G Sathiyan stays in contention for quarter-final, Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra bow out
G Sathiyan is the only Indian who is still in contention for a place in the quarter-final round of the ongoing ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup in Yokohama, Japan. On the other hand, after a poor show in the group stage, Achanta Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra have been knocked out of the competition.
The 28-year-old Sathiyan finished third in Group C which has now allowed the Indian to stay in fray for the two remaining slots in the quarter-final round. As per the format of the Asian Cup, the top two players qualify from first three groups and the other two slots are filled up after a contest between the top finisher of Group D and the paddlers who ended the group stage at the third place.
After starting on a poor note in the group stage with a loss against Koki Nowa of Japan by 7-11, 9-11, 12-10, 8-11 points, Sathiyan won the second match against one of the most experienced paddlers in the tournament, Chuang Chih-Yuan of Chinese Taipei 11-5, 11-4, 11-8. However, he went down to Korea’s Lee Sangsu 7-11, 4-11, 11-6, 5-11.
The 10th seed Indian will now meet Kazakh paddler Kirill Gerassimenko on Saturday in the preliminary round to make it to the quarter-finals of the competition.
Sharath Kamal, on the other hand, lost all his matches in Group B to get knocked out of the tournament. He started with a loss against Ma Long 5-11, 5-11, 5-11 and then was defeated by Taipei’s Yun-Ju Lin 12-10, 6-11, 9-11, 8-11. He finally went down against Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan 6-11, 12-14, 11-9, 11-5, 7-11 to end his poor campaign at the event.
In the women’s singles, Manika Batra also had a terrible outing as she lost two of her three matches against poorer opponents in Group D. The 56th ranked female paddler in the world lost to Iran’s Ashtari Mahshid, who won the opening match 10-12, 5-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-6, before failing against Singapore’s Ye Lin 7-11, 13-15, 8-11. She, however, managed to beat Maha Faramarzi of Qatar 11-3, 11-6, 11-2 to finish third in Group D and hence failed to stay alive in the tournament.
