Houston (USA), Nov 26, : India’s mixed-doubles pair, Sathiyan Ganasekaran – Manika Batra, and Sharath Kamal – Archana Kamath advanced into the round of 16 at 2021 World Table Tennis Championships Finals here on Friday. Kamal and Archana fought back to win against Dina Meshref & Omar Assar 3-2 (9-11), 2-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-4), to set up a final 16 match against Jia Nan Yuan & Emmanuel Lebesson.
The Indian duo had previously defeated the Algeria team of Sami Kherouf & Katia Kessaci during the first round.
Sathiyan, Manika, who had a first-round bye won 3-1 against Adriana Diaz and Brian Afanador of Puerto Rico.
Next, they will face the Sino-American couple of Kanak Jha & Wang Manyu.
Notably, American and Chinese table tennis players have teamed up to compete in doubles events at the world championships to commemorate the 50th anniversary of ‘pingpong d’plomacy’.
This diplomatic initiative was started in 1970 and saw table tennis players play a significant part in resolving tensions between the USA and China post-Cold War.
In the women’s doubles, Tokyo Olympian Manika Batra (Tokyo Olympian) and Archana Kamath (Archana Kamath) won comfortably.They lost to Belgium’s Margo Delgraef and Nathalie Marsetti 3-0 (11-4-7, 11-7, 11-6 in round 32).
G Sathiyan was defeated 3-4 by Quadri Aruna, Nigeri, a 2018 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, in the men’s singles.India’s singles campaign at this tournament was ended by W’th Sathiyan’s’loss.
After a 1-3 (9-11-9, 11-13 and 11-13 respectively) loss to the Swedish pair Truls Moregardh & Anton Kallberg in round 2, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran & Sharath Kamal were also eliminated from the men’s singles.
The Indian duo received a bye in round 1.
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