Desai and Shah, Batra and Gnanasekaran in quarters of Asian WTTC Continental Stage

 

Mixed luck for India in Qatar
Desai and Shah, Batra and Gnanasekaran in quarters of  Asian WTTC Continental Stage

By Armstrong Vaz

Doha (Qatar) January 9: Indian paddlers had mixed fortunes in the Asian WTTC Continental Stage at the Lusail Sports Complex in Doha, Qatar on Monday.

India’s top mixed doubles pair Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, dropped a game but made it to the quarter-finals while Sharath Kamal Achanta and Sreeja Akula went down 4-0 to the Kong Hong pair in the same category.

Batra and Gnanasekaran, which finished as the runners-up at the 2022 WTT Doha Contender held in January last year and also losing finalists in the WTT Contender event in Nova Gorica, and have since broken into the top-five world rankings in mixed doubles showed shades of their brilliance on a cold and cloudy day in Doha.

The Indians who have been on a roll last year, won the first three games but the Japanese pair of Heriot Shinozuka and Miyuu Kihara came back to take the fourth one.
 However, Batra and partner made it sure to wind up the match by taking the fifth game, winning at 4-1 (11-9, 12-10, 11-7, 5-11, 11-7) in 43 minutes.

The other Indian pair in the mixed doubles Achanta and Akula were not so lucky as they went 11-6, 12-10, 11-7, 11-6 to Kwan Kit Ho and Chengzhu Zhu of Hong Kong.

In the men’s doubles, it was a mixed bag too with Achanta and Gnanasekar losing 4-3 to Ma Long and Yuan Licen of China in a thriller.

The Indian started off on an impressive note taking the first two games and went on to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven match by converting the fifth set point in the fourth game.

The Commonwealth Games silver medalists kept pace with the Chinese till 7-7 in the fifth set to move closer to an unexpected victory. However, the Chinese took the fifth one to make it 3-2 from there on the experienced pair took control of the proceedings to win the sixth and seventh game and advance to the quarter-finals.

The thrilling encounter lasted 53 minutes with Long, the two-time Olympic gold medalist and Licen, who also has several titles under his belts, winning 4-3 (4-11, 10-12, 11-5, 13-15, 11-7, 11-2, 11-5).  

The Indian camp has something to cheer about in the men’s doubles as Harmeet Desai and Manush Utpalbhai Shah made it to the last eight stage with a 4-1 win over Iranian pair of Amir Hossein Hodaei and Amin Ahmadian, the final score line reading as 11-9, 13-15, 11-4, 9-11, 6-11.

In the women’s doubles section, India drew a blank as the only pair in the fray Sreeja Akula and Reeth Tennison lost to Korean pair of Jihee Jeon and Yubin Shin, losing 11-6, 11-8, 11-8, 11-2.  

The Asian WTTC Continental Stage is the first competition of the 2023 season and will act as a qualifying stage for the World Championships to be held in Durban, South Africa in May 2023.
Action will heat up on Tuesday in the men’s and women’s singles category with most of the top ranked players having got a bye into the second round and will be seen in action on the third day of the event.