WTT Contender Doha: G Sathiyan-Manika Batra win mixed doubles silver
Sharath Kamal won the men’s singles bronze at the Qatar table tennis meet courtesy of making the semi-finals.
India’s Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra bagged the mixed doubles silver medal while Sharath Kamal settled for bronze in men’s singles at the WTT Contender Doha 2022 on Thursday.
Playing at the Lusail Sports Arena in Doha, the Indian duo of G Sathiyan and Manika Batra, ranked world No. 7, went down to the world No. 1 pair of Cheng I-Ching and Lin Yun-Ju of Chinese Taipei 3-0 (4-11, 5-11, 3-11) in the mixed doubles final.
Sathiyan and Batra were playing in their third final since their reunion after the Tokyo Olympics. The Indian table tennis pair enjoyed a good run last year and had won WTT Contender Budapest and silver at WTT Contender Tunis.
However, the Indian duo failed to put up much of a fight against the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallists from Chinese Taipei.
Earlier in the semi-final, Manika Batra and G Sathiyan had defeated world No. 4 Wong Chun Ting and Doo Hoi Kem of Hong Kong 3-2.
Meanwhile, in men’s singles, four-time Olympian Sharath Kamal settled for bronze after losing to upcoming Chinese player Yuan Licen 4-3 in the semi-finals.
In the earlier rounds, Sharath Kamal had blanked 33rd-ranked Croatian Tomislav Pucar in the quarters and world No. 59 Lim Jonghoon of South Korea in the round of 16.
Other top Indians in singles Manika Batra and G Sathiyan had crashed out in their respective first rounds.
In the women’s doubles, Manika Batra and Archana Kamath were eliminated after losing their quarter-finals against Chen Szu-Yu and Huang Yi-Hua of Chinese Taipei.
The Indian table tennis players will next be in action at the same venue for WTT Star Contender Doha starting from March 25.