WTT Contender Goa: Manika Batra, Sutirtha Mukherjee Upset Higher Ranked Opponents into March in Last 16

Indian girls paddlers Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee overcame higher-ranked opponents to maneuver into the last-16 stage on the World Table Tennis Contender Championship on Thursday.

The greatest upset of the day was headlined by 20-year-old Korean teenager Cho Daeseong, who ousted Chinese world No. 1 in males’s singles Fan Zhendong.

Manika beat world No. 14 Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico 3-1. The scoreline learn 11-9, 11-8, 5-11, 11-8 in the Indian star’s favour.

Sutirtha, at present ranked 146, had in the morning session, acquired the higher of world No. 18 Jia Nan Yuan of France 3-0. Sutirtha gained 11-7, 11-8, 11-7.

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While Manika can be up in opposition to world No. 20 Qian Tianyi of China, Sutirtha will face yet one more veteran Fu Yu, who’s ranked nineteenth in the ITTF charts.

An exhausted Manika, whose defensive chops have been too sizzling to deal with for Adriana, stated after the match, “I’m actually comfortable that I gained right this moment in opposition to Adriana Diaz.

“Let’s see what occurs in the following spherical. I’ve performed her (Qian Tianyi) earlier than and could have some methods in opposition to her. I’ll simply give my finest and I’ll simply play my finest recreation tomorrow for my nation and for myself.”

Sutirtha, whose impeccable timing and power on the forehand have been her strength in the tournament, said, “I feel absolutely great since I managed to beat a top-20 player. Tomorrow, I’ll be playing against Fu Yu and I am hoping that I will win against her as well.

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“I had faced Yuan previously also and had conceded the match by a close margin. This time I didn’t think much about the rankings and just went with the mindset to play freely, and that led me to this victory.”

Manika Batra and Archana Kamath went down in their quarter-final in opposition to Cheng-I Ching and Li Yu-Jhun of Chinese Taipei. They gained the primary recreation 11-8 however the Chinese Taipei pair got here again to win the following three 15-13, 11-9, 11-7.

India’s hopes in girls’s doubles have been snuffed out utterly when Swedes Linda Bergstrom and Christina Kallberg ousted Ayhika and Sutirtha Mukherjee 3-1 (11-7, 13-11, 6-11, 11-7). Japan and Korea are the opposite semi-finalists in the ladies’s doubles.

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The males’s doubles can be a straight battle between Japan and Korea as two of their pairs conflict with one another, in every of the 2 semi-finals.

One of them, Lim Jonghoon and Jang Woojin of Korea acquired the higher of Indians Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar 3-1 (12-10, 11-8, 7-11, 11-6).

The Indian blended doubles pair of Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran made a quarter-final exit, taking place to Miwa Harimoto and Shunsuke Togami of Japan in three straight video games 12-10, 11-6, 11-6).

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