WTT Feeder Beirut II 2024: Sreeja Akula wins singles title

India’s Sreeja Akula won the women’s singles title at the WTT Feeder Beirut II 2024 table tennis tournament at the Al Kawthar Secondary School in Lebanon on Sunday.

Akula, the world No. 47, beat Luxembourg’s Sarah De Nutte 3-1 (6-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-9) to win what was her second WTT singles career title. The 25-year-old’s maiden crown came at the Feeder Corpus Christi 2024 in Texas back in January.

En route to the final, Sreeja Akula accounted for the Republic of Korea’s world No. 36 Suh Hyo Won, who was the top seed at the tournament.

Akula, however, failed to clinch a second table tennis title from the Lebanon meet after she and her partner Diya Chitale, went down 3-1 (4-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-6) to Hong Kong China’s Doo Hoi Kem and Zhu Chengzhu in the women’s doubles final.

Poymantee Baisya and Akash Pal, meanwhile, stunned senior compatriots Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra to win the mixed doubles crown. Baisya-Pal beat Sathiyan-Batra 3-1 (11-9, 7-11, 11-9, 11-0) in the final to win their maiden WTT title.

Diya Chitale and Manush Shah, who won the Beirut I Feeder mixed doubles crown, lost to Sathiyan and Batra in the semis.

G Sathiyan, who won the men’s singles title at the first Beirut Feeder earlier this week, stopped two steps short this time around. The Indian table tennis player stormed into the semi-finals only to see his 10-match winning streak end at the hands of Kazakhstan’s Kirill Gerassimenko.

Gerassimenko, the world No. 43 in men’s singles, beat the 103-ranked Sathiyan 3-0 (11-9, 13-11, 11-9).

India also managed a 1-2 finish in men’s doubles with Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar beating compatriots Mudit Dani and Akash Pal 3-1 (11-7, 11-5, 9-11, 11-6) in the title clash.