Sathiyan Gnanasekaran through to semis at Czech Open table tennis
G Sathiyan has not yet dropped a game en route to the final four. He is the only remaining Indian at the event.
Top seed Sathiyan Gnanasekaran advanced to the men’s singles semi-finals at the ITTF Czech International Open in Olomouc, the Czech Republic on Tuesday.
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran comfortably beat Ali Alkhadrawi of Saudi Arabia 4-0 (11-9, 11-2, 11-9, 11-8) in the quarter-finals. He had gotten the better of Russia’s Sadi Ismailov 4-0 in the round of 16 earlier in the day.
World No. 39 Sathiyan Gnanasekaran is the only remaining Indian table tennis player going into the final day of the tournament on Wednesday.
Former top-ranked junior Archana Kamath, seeded 10th in the women’s singles, bowed out in the semis after losing 2-4 (11-8, 4-11, 11-13, 12-14, 11-9, 10-12) to Mariia Tailakova of Russia. She had also exited the mixed doubles with Manav Thakkar in the quarter-finals.
The men’s doubles pair of Snehit Suravajjula/Jeet Chandra won their quarter-final clash but then fell in the semis to the English-Swedish pair of Samuel Walker and Truls Moregard.
Manav Thakkar and Snehit Suravajjula also lost in the singles round of 16.
Indian results on Day 2 of ITTF Czech Open
Men’s Singles
G Sathiyan 4-0 Sadi Ismailov (RUS)
G Sathiyan 4-0 Ali Alkhadrawi (KSA)
Manav Thakkar 2-4 Ali Alkhadrawi (KSA)
Snehit Suravajjula 2-4 Leo De Nodrest (France)
Women’s Singles
Archana Kamath 4-2 Paulina Vega (CHI)
Archana Kamath 2-4 Mariia Tailakova (RUS)
Sreeja Akula 1-4 Linda Bergstorm (SWE)
Men’s Doubles
Snehit Suravajjula/Jeet Chandra 3-1 Abdulaziz Bu Shulaybi/Ali Alkhadrawi (KSA)
Snehit Suravajjula/Jeet Chandra 2-3 Samuel Walker (ENG)/Truls Moregard (SWE)
Manav Thakkar/Sanil Shetty 0-3 Bastien Rembert/Vincent Picard (FRA)
Mixed Doubles
Reeth Tennison/Sanil Shetty 2-3 Aleksandr Khanin/Daria Trigolos (BLR)
Archana Kamath/Manav Thakkar 2-3 Solomiya Brateyko/Anton Limonov (UKR)