WTT Contender Doha 2022 | Manika Batra enters women's and mixed doubles quarters
With a win against Clarence Chew and Zeng Jian on Monday, Indian table tennis players Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran advanced to the round of 8 of the WTT Contender Doha 2022. The world No. 10 rallied from behind to overcome their Singapore opponents 3-2 (6-11, 11-9, 11-13, 11-8, 11-6).
The world No. 319 pair of Christina Kallberg and Kristian Karlsson of Sweden will play Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran next. In the men's singles round of 32, Sharath Kamal, a four-time Olympian and world No. 34, defeated Qatar's Fahed Almughanne 3-0 (11-7, 15-13, 11-8) later in the day. In the round of 16, he will face world No. 59 Lim Jonghoon of South Korea.
In the opening round of the men's singles, world No. 33 Sathiyan Gnanasekaran was defeated 3-0 (11-5, 11-6, 14-12) by China's 361st-ranked Yuan Licen. Manika Batra and Archana Kamath advanced to the quarterfinals of the women's doubles after defeating Doo Hoi Kem and Zhu Cheng Zhu.
The Indian duo, who advanced to the round of 8 of WTT Grand Smash Singapore last week, bounced back in the round of 16 to overcome the Hong Kong pair 3-1 (6-11, 12-10, 11-6, 11-5) In the last eight, Manika Batra and Archana Kamath will face Chinese Taipei's Chen Szu-Yu and Huang Yi-Hua.
In the women's singles, world No. 46 Manika Batra was eliminated in the first round after losing 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-6) against China's Fan Siqi. In the women's singles main draw, Manika Batra was the sole Indian challenger. In the mixed doubles round of 16, Archana Kamath and Manav Thakkar were defeated 3-1 (7-11, 4-11, 11-5, 11-13) by Tatiana Kukulkova and Yang Wang of Slovakia.
Previously, none of the Indian players, even Tokyo Olympian Sutirtha Mukherjee, had been able to go through the qualifications to the main event.