WTT Star Contender Goa | Four Indian teams qualify for the main draw
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Four Indian doubles teams have qualified for the main draw of the World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender Goa, which is being held at the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium. This is great news for the Indian contingent, making them serious medal contenders in the tournament.
Two teams competed in the women's doubles: Suhana Saini and Yashaswini Ghorpade and Poymantee Baisya and Anannya Basak. Manush Shah and Snehit Suravajulla, as well as unlucky losers Jeet Chandra and Ronit Bhanja, advanced to the round of 16 in the men's doubles.
On the first day of the two-day qualifications, four mixed doubles couples had already qualified for the main draw in the morning session. Tuesday's second day of the event, which is being hosted by Stupa Sports Analytics, will include competition for eight slots in the men's and women's singles categories.
Indians Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty, Manav Thakkar, Shubh Goel, Akash Pal, Prithoki Chakraborti, Sutirtha Mukherjee, and Swastika Ghosh won their round one men's and women's singles qualifications.
The biggest shock in the women's doubles qualifying rounds came from the Koreans Nayeong Kim and Cheonhul Joo, who defeated top seeds Suthasini Sawettabut and Orawan Paranang 3-1 in round two. To advance to the round of 16, they defeated the Thai pair 7-11,11-6,11-7,11-4. In round one's morning session, the Koreans defeated Gayatri Choudhary and Anjali Rohilla of India.
Third-seeded Indians Suhana Saini and Yashaswini Ghorpade faced the seasoned Korean team of Kim Hayeong and Lee Eunhye in another round two women's doubles qualifying match.
The young Indian players had a fantastic performance in a tough match, winning 3-2 (9-11,15-13,11-7,9-11,11-5) to advance to the main round.
Poymantee Baisya and Anannya Basak, another Indian qualifying pair, will join them there. In their matchup with the Portuguese duo of Jeini Shao and Fu Yu, the Indians received a walkover. Reeth Tennison and Swastika Ghosh, another Indian team, having been defeated by them in the opening round.
Fourth seeds Li Ching Wan and Zhu Chengzhu of Hong Kong, China, who easily defeated India's Prachi Mazumder and Avisha Karmakar 3-0 (11-9,11-6,11-7) in their round two qualifier, also advanced to the main draw.
Cedric Nuytinck and Adrien Rassenfosse of Belgium earned the final qualifying position of the evening in the men's doubles. In the day's final match, they triumphed 3-2 (11-7,4-11,9-11,11-8,11-8) over Koreans Ganghyeon Park and Dongsoo Kang.
Manush Shah and Snehit Suravajulla led the Indian celebration by sweeping Jeet Chandra and Ronit Bhanja 3-0 (11-5,11-5,11-6) in round two to advance to the main draw. Payas Jain and Sanil Shetty, however, lost in straight games against Bastien Rembert and Jules Rolland of France at the same stage.
England's Tom Jarvis and Samuel Walker defeated the home team's Jashan Antal and Arush Dutt 3-0 to earn the fourth male qualifying slot (11-6,11-5,11-7).
In the men's doubles round of 16, two more losing teams also advanced due to their better doubles rankings compared to the other losing teams. Jeet Chandra and Ronit Bhanja from India and Ganghyeon Park and Dongsoo Kang from Korea were the participants.
The first-ever WTT Star Contender Goa has started with three rounds of qualifying in singles and two in doubles spanning over two days.
The WTT Star Contender Goa 2023 will include 200 players from over 30 nations, including at least five top-20 players in both the men's and women's singles main events.
