WTT Contender Muscat 2022: India end campaign with three medals
India secured two silvers and a bronze at the Oman table tennis meet. Know the medallists.
India’s Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee bagged the women’s doubles silver medal at the WTT Contender Muscat 2022 after losing 3-1 to China’s Zhang Rui and Kuai Man in the final at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex on Saturday.
The loss ended an incredible run for the Mukherjees at the Muscat meet. It saw them knock out Puerto Rican top seeds Adriana and Melanie Diaz in the first round of the main draw and overcome fellow Indians Sreeja Akula and Selena Selvakumar in the semis.
Tokyo Olympian Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika lost the opening game 11-6 but hit back in the second to level the score at 1-1.
Despite putting on a valiant fight, the Indian table tennis players lost the all-important third game 10-12, which shifted the momentum of the match in the Chinese team’s favour.
China’s Zhang Rui and Kuai Man took an early lead in the fourth game and proceeded to wrap up the match 6-11, 11-8, 10-12, 7-11 and the gold medal.
India, hence, ended the WTT Contender Muscat 2022 with three medals – all in doubles.
Besides Sutirtha and Ayhika’s women’s doubles silver, Sreeja Akula and Selena Selvakumar won a bronze in the same event for reaching the semi-finals.
Archana Kamath and Manav Thakkar had clinched the mixed doubles silver on Friday.
Top Indian table tennis stars Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran couldn’t progress beyond the quarter-finals in any of their events.
WTT Contender Muscat 2022 table tennis: India’s medals tally
Sutirtha Mukherjee/ Ayhika Mukherjee – silver (women’s doubles)
Sreeja Akula/Selena Selvakumar – bronze (women’s doubles)
Manav Thakkar/ Archana Kamath – silver (mixed doubles)