WTT Star Contender Doha | Manika Batra and G Sathiyan advance in singles competition

03/29/2022

Manika Batra, the top Indian table tennis player, won her round of 32 women's singles match at the WTT Star Contender Doha 2022 on Sunday after coming back from a game down. In 34 minutes, world No. 48 Manika Batra upset world No. 27 Xiaona Shan of Germany 3-1 (7-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-9).

Batra will meet Ying Han, a team silver medalist from Germany, in the round of 16. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, on the other hand, fought back from two games down to upset Mattias Falck of Sweden 3-2 in the men's singles (8-11, 3-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-6). In the pre-quarters, he'll meet another Swede, Kristian Karlsson.

Sharath Kamal, meanwhile, was eliminated in the round of 32 after losing to Dang Qui of Germany 3-2 (11-7, 11-7, 5-11, 3-11, 7-11). Batra and her partner Archana Kamath also advanced to the quarterfinals of the women's doubles. Dora Madarasz and Georgina Pota of Hungary were beaten 3-1 by the Indian duo (10-12, 11-7, 11-7, 11-5).

Ayhika and Sutirtha Mukherjee, the other Indian pair in the women's doubles, were eliminated in the first round, losing 2-3 (11-9, 10-12, 11-7, 9-11, 11-13) to Hong Kong's Soo Wai Yam Minnie and Lee Ho Ching. In the mixed doubles, Batra and Sathiyan will face Maria Xiao and Alvaro Robles of Spain.

On the first day, India's men's doubles teams were eliminated from the competition in the first round itself.