WTT Contender Tunis 2023: India’s Sutirtha and Ayhika Mukherjee win women’s doubles crown
The Indian table tennis players beat the Japanese pair of Miyuu Kihara and Miwa Harimoto in the final to become the first Indians to win a Contender title this year.
Table Tennis
Indian table tennis players Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee won the WTT Contender Tunis 2023 women's doubles title at the Sports Hall of Rades in Tunisia on Sunday.
The duo of Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee defeated the Japanese pair of Miyuu Kihara and Miwa Harimoto 3-1 (11-5, 11-6, 5-11, 13-11) in the final. Harimoto won the women’s singles title at Tunis earlier in the day.
With the win, the pair became the first Indian table tennis players to clinch a WTT Contender title this year.
En route to the title clash, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee beat top-seeds and world championships silver medallists Shin Yubin and Jeon Ji-hee of the Republic of Korea in the semis.
Earlier, the Indian duo of Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee knocked out Chinese Taipei’s Chen Szu-Yu and Huang Yi-Hua, bronze medallists from the 2022 world championships, after beating Amy Wang and Rachel Sung of the USA in the opening round.
In the mixed doubles event, the Indian TT pair of Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran made the semi-finals before going down to Shin Yubin and Lim Jonghoon of Korea on Saturday.
India’s men's doubles pair of Manav Vikash Thakkar and Manush Utpalbhai Shah also made the final four before being ousted by the Korean pair of Cho Daeseong and Cho Seungmin.
Commonwealth Games 2022 champion Sharath Kamal and compatriot Sathiyan Gnanasekaran were eliminated in the first round of men’s singles. Harmeet Desai fell in the pre-quarterfinals.
In the women’s singles category, Manika Batra failed to progress beyond round 1. Tokyo Olympian Ayhika Mukherjee was the only Indian women’s table tennis player to make the second round.
WTT Contender Tunis 2023: Results of Indian players
Men’s singles
Sharath Kamal - Out in first round
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran - Out in the first round
Harmeet Desai - Out in the second round
Sanil Shetty - Out in the qualifiers
Manush Shah - Out in the qualifiers
Women’s singles
Manika Batra - Out in the first round
Diya Parag Chitale - Out in the first round
Sreeja Akula - Out in the first round
Ayhika Mukherjee - Out in the second round
Reeth Tennison - Out in the qualifiers
Sutirtha Mukherjee - Out in the qualifiers
Men’s doubles
Harmeet Desai/Sharath Kamal - Out in the first round
Manav Vikash Thakkar/Manush Shah - Out in the semi-finals
Women’s doubles
Sutirtha Mukherjee/Ayhika Mukherjee - Winners
Diya Parag Chitale/Sreeja Akula - Out in the first round
Mixed doubles
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran/Manika Batra - Out in the semi-finals
Manush Utpalbhai Shah/Sreeja Akula - Out in the qualifiers