World Table Tennis Championships Finals | Indian doubles pairs start well, progress to next round
Indian paddlers started out with wins at the World Table Tennis Championships Finals in Durban, South Africa on Saturday. It was Reeth Tennison and Sreeja Akula, who won their respective round of 128 matches in almost similar fashions to kickstart things.
Reeth beat Hana Arapovic 4-2 (11-7, 8-11, 5-11, 14-12, 11-3, 11-8), while Akula won her match against Nicole Arlia 4-1 (11-6, 11-9, 9-11, 11-4, 11-5). Unfortunately, it was curtains for Suthirtha Mukherjee, who lost to Tatiana Kukulkova 3-4 (11-3, 11-4, 10-12, 10-12, 6-11, 11-5, 8-11).
It wasn't the best of starts in the men's singles, as Manush Shah and Harmeet Desai were eliminated in the first round as well. Harmeet lost against Tiago Apolonia by 1-4 (13-11, 6-11, 4-11, 9-11, 13-15), while Manush lost against Cho Seungmin 1-4 (8-11, 11-7, 13-11, 5-11, 5-11).
In the women's doubles, Sreeja Akula and Diya Parag Chitale won in their round of 64 match. They won against Gaia Monfardini and Nicole Arlia 3-2 (8-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-8, 11-9). It was another win, this time by Manika Batra and Archana Kamath, who beat Emily Quan and Yishiuan Lin 3-1 (10-12, 11-2, 11-9, 11-5).
Manika also won her mixed doubles match win G Sathiyan as they beat Xia Lian Ni and Luka Mladenovic 3-2 (9-11, 11-8, 14-16, 11-7, 11-6), to advance to the next round.