Harmeet Desai, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Yashaswini Ghorpade Make Singles Main Draw of WTT Star Contender Goa

Three Indian paddlers made it to the singles foremost draw of the first-ever World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender Goa, because the two-day qualifiers concluded on Tuesday.

Teenager Yashaswini Ghorpade led the cost as all of the three Indians took out increased ranked opponents throughout two matches within the day to make it a memorable first qualifier of a house WTT occasion.

The foremost attracts might be performed from Wednesday to Sunday.

Yashaswini, the youngest of the three qualifiers, was additionally the primary to undergo within the ladies’s singles. She took out two Koreans on her means, first Cheonhui Joo, ranked 103, in spherical two after which Nayeong Kim, ranked 104.

While it took her 4 video games to beat Joo (11-7 11-6 Sep 11 11-8), Kim proved more durable and stretched the teenager to the complete 5 video games for a 11-6 1-11 5-11 11-5 11-7 consequence. Yashaswini is at the moment ranked 196 on the planet.

“I’m qualifying for the primary time in a star contender match and I’m actually completely satisfied. Beating participant has helped me achieve good expertise which is such an ideal factor,” said Yashaswini after her win.

The next Indian to go through was Sutirtha Mukherjee, presently ranked 147 in the world. She first blanked Chinese Taipei’s Li Yu-Jhun (world rank 92) 3-0 (11-9 11-8 11-6) in round two and then beat Korean world number 107 Eunhye Lee 3-1 (11-9 6-11 11-6 11-8) in round three to make the round of 64.

While she meets compatriot Suhana Saini in the main draw, Yashaswini will be up against world number 38 Japanese Miyu Nagasaki.

Harmeet Desai was the lone Indian to qualify for the main draw from the men’s singles qualifiers.

He was stretched to the hilt by both his opponents. First, German world number 99 Fanbo Meng took him the distance and then 84th ranked Argentine Horacio Cifuentes forced another 3-2 (11-7 9-11 11-7 8-11 11-5) result from the 29-year-old senior paddler from Surat.

“Playing at home definitely helps as there has been a lot of crowd support since the first match itself. The games have been very competitive and that has kept me on my toes which also made me push myself more,” mentioned Harmeet after making into the primary attracts.

In different qualifying outcomes, Korea additionally grabbed two berths within the ladies’s singles, whereas Thailand bagged one when Orawan Paranang put it throughout India’s Reeth Tennison 3-1 (5-11 11-7 11-1 11-7) in spherical three of the qualifiers.

England, Turkey and Hong Kong took the opposite three ladies’s singles qualifying berths.

Korea additionally bagged two qualifying berths within the males’s singles, whereas Hong Kong and Belgium additionally bagged a berth every.

Hungarian Bence Majoros, ranked 112 on the planet, precipitated an upset within the closing recreation of the night, when he beat Japan’s Mizuki Oikawa 3-2 (Sep 11 11-7 15-13 4-11 13-11).

Japan, nevertheless, precipitated the upset of the day, when Yuta Tanaka took out the best ranked within the qualifying draw, Xu Yingbin of China in 4 video games 3-1 (11-9 10-12 11-6 14-12) to make the primary draw.

Another fascinating males’s third-round qualifying match noticed two younger bespectacled athletes combat it out. 16-year-old French expertise Felix Lebrun emerged the winner on the finish of it, to enter the primary draw by defeating Manush Shah of India 3-1 (12-10 5-11 11-8 11-6) of their spherical three qualifier.

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