WTT Contender Muscat | Sutirtha and Ayhika Mukherjee falter in qualification rounds
Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee, the in-form Indian women's doubles duo who won silver at the WTT Contender in Muscat earlier in month, were knocked out after losing their last qualification match. Katarina Strazar and Ana Tofant of Slovenia defeated the Indian table tennis team 3-2.
With the exception of the doubles, Sutirtha Mukherjee, a Tokyo Olympian, was unable to advance to the main draw in singles. Sutirtha was defeated 3-0 by Yang Huijing of China after winning 3-1 and 3-2 over Leili Mostafavi and Tatiana Kukulkova, respectively. Sreeja Akula and Selena Selvakumar, the bronze medalists in Muscat, were blanked in the first round of the qualifications by Koh Kai Xin Pearlyn and Zhang Wanling.
In men's singles, Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar, Mudit Dani, and Snehit Suravajjula all lost their qualifiers. In the main draw, which begins on Monday, world No. 33 Sathiyan Gnanasekaran will be joined by world No. 34 Sharath Kamal in the men's singles, while Manika Batra, ranked 46 in the women's singles, will be the lone Indian challenger.
G Sathiyan and Manika Batra, who are ranked No. 10 in the world in mixed doubles, will be looking to rebound after missing out on the first WTT Grand Smash in Singapore. Manav Thakkar will play mixed doubles alongside Archana Kamath for India's second pair. At the WTT Contender in Muscat, the tandem took silver.
Ayhika Mukherjee, Archana Kamath, Sreeja Akula, Krittwika Roy, Selena Selvakumar, Swastika Ghosh, and Prapti Sen were among the other Indians that failed to qualify in the women's singles.