Qatar Table tennis pair of Ahmed Khalil and Mohamed qualify for WTTC in South Africa

January 12, 2023

Al Annabi duo shatter Kazak pair hopes and qualify for the May event in Durban

India’s Harmit Desai and Reeth Tennison eye one more quota place on final day of event in Doha on Friday

By Armstrong Vaz

Doha, January 12: Ahmed Khalil Al-Mohannadi and Mohamed Abdel-Wahhab will represent Qatar at the 2023 Durban World Table Tennis Championships in May after the duo won the quota in the men’s doubles at the Asian WTTC Continental Stage on Thursday at the Lusail Sports Complex in Doha, Qatar.

The Qatari pair defeated Kazakhstan’s Aidos Kenzhigulov and Iskander Kharki 4-1 in the match for positions 13 to 14 to mark a new and historic achievement for the Al Anabi team and book a place in the Worlds Finals in South Africa.

The Qatari started on an impressive note on Thursday winning the first three sets at 11-7, 12-10 and 11-4, before the Kazakh doubles managed to bounce back in the fourth round to take it at 12-10, but Al-Mohannadi and Abdul-Wahhab won in the fifth set at 11-7 to wrap up the proceedings, much to the delight of the Qatar officials and players.

The Qatari duo join 12 other Asian pairs who have got the quota for the South Africa event in the men’s doubles and will be the lone representatives from Middle East and Arab World at the championships.

Others who have qualified from Qatar include 12 pairs in the Women’s doubles and an equal number in the mixed doubles.

25 men’s singles players from Asia will get the quota from the Qatar event which concludes on Friday afternoon time, while 28 women singles players will be on the quota list when the curtains come down on the event.

The Qatari duo performed at an outstanding level since the start of the competition, after they were able to overcome the obstacle of the Jordanian doubles, Zaid Abu Yamen and Ziad Al-Damisi on Saturday, with a score of 4-2 in the round of 32, after a strong marathon match.

In the round of 16, the Qatari doubles lost to the Korean duo, Won Jin Jang and Lim Jong Hoon, 4-0 and then lost to Indian pair of xxx in positions for 9 to 16 leaving them to have a go at the last available quota in the 12-13 positions match against the Kazak pair.

The Qatari pair shattered Kazakhstan’s hopes of picking up a fourth quota from Qatar who had earlier picked one in the men’s singles with Kirill Gerasimenko securing the berth, while Gerasimenko together with Alan Kurmangaliyev earned the doubles berth, while Zauresh Akasheva and Aidos Kenzhigulov captured the mixed berth.

The host country was represented by Ahmed Khalil, Muhammad Abdel-Wahhab, Ahmed Muthanna, Abdullah Abdel-Wahhab and Maryam Ali, and were the 115 players representing 20 countries, with 58 players competing in the men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles category.

Besides the Asian WTTC Continental Stage Qatar will host three other events this month starting with the WTT Contender which begins on Januarys 15 and ends on 21, followed by WTT Feeder Doha, from January 22 to 26 and will end with WTT Youth Contender Doha, from January 27 to 30.

A maximum of four players can get a quota from each of the category for the World championship.

The competitions for the Asian qualifiers continue with four matches in the men’s singles and one in the women’s singles which will complete the quota list.

Action starts at one o’clock in the afternoon, with Saudi Arabia’s Ali Al-Khadhrawi meeting Singaporean player Xiu Wei, while the India’s Harmeet Desai will play with the Singapore’s Pang Kuen. In the men’s singles, where 25 spots were up for grabs, Sharath Kamal Achanta has picked one quota place while Harmeet is still in the hunt for the spot with his fate decided on Friday afternoon.

In the women’s singles, India’s Reeth Tennison will take on Lam Wing Ng Hong Kong while among to be among the 28 women singles qualifiers from Doha and the fourth one for India in Women’s singles.

India's top-ranked women's player Manika Batra, national champion Sreeja Akula and Swastika Ghosh are the three women players who have already qualified for the event and Reeth win enable India to take their full quota in the women’s singles.

On Wednesday, ranked a distant 243, Swastika punched way above her weight to bring down 70th-ranked Hsing-Yin of Chinese Taipei 4-3 (4-11, 11-7, 2-11, 3-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-9) in the playoff for 17 to 24 places.

In men’s doubles, Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran made it among the 14 qualified pairs after beating Qatar’s Mohammad and Ahmad Khalil to finish in top 16.

Similarly, in women’s doubles, Sreeja and Reeth defeated Singapore’s Goi Rui Xuan and Wong Xin Ru 11-6, 12-10, 13-11, 11-7 to be among the 12 qualifiers.

In the mixed doubles, Sathiyan along with Manika booked a place in the World Finals after winning the round of 16 match against Hiroto Shinozuka and Miyuu of Japan 4-1 (11-9, 12-10, 11-7, 5-11, 11-7).