World Table Tennis Championship Finals | G Sathiyan enters third round in men's singles
A file image of Sathiyan.
|(Twitter)
Ace India player G Sathiyan has made it to the men's singles round of 32 at the World Table Tennis Championship Finals 2021 in the USA. The Indian beat Vladimir Sidorenko 4-0 (11-9, 11-9, 11-8, 11-6) on Wednesday, and now will be up against Nigerian Quadri Aruna – silver medallist from the 2018 CWG.
Interestingly, Sathiyan is the only Indian who has managed to reach this far in the tournament as far as singles are concerned. Earlier Ayhika Mukherjee lost in women’s singles to Japan’s Hina Hayata, the current world No. 18, 4-0 (5-11, 4-11, 3-11, 4-11). Apart from that, all the other Indian players had lost just in the opening round.Â
In doubles too, it wasn't the greatest day for the Indians. The team of Anthony Amalraj and Harmeet Desai lost to the Nigerian duo of Olajide Omotayo and Bode Abiodun in the round of 64. They lost 2-3 (11-8, 9-11, 9-11, 11-5, 8-11).
The pair of Sathiyan and Sharath Kamal got a first-round bye and will play their first match on Thursday. Tokyo Olympian Sutirtha Mukherjee and her partner Madhurika Patkar lost in the first round too. They went down to Singapore's Goi Rui Xuan and Wong Xin Ru 0-3 (3-11, 7-11, 4-11).
Another pair, Manika Batra and Archana Kamath, got a bye in the first round, and they too will begin their campaign on Thursday.Â
