Indian table tennis ace G Sathiyan began his men’s singles campaign in the USD 2 million Singapore Smash 2022 tournament on a winning note when he beat Peng Yew En Koen of Chinese Taipei 11-6, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8 in the first round on Saturday. (More Sports News)
The 33rd-rank🎀ed Sathiyan, who dropped the second game, didn't have to worry too much against the player ranked No. 140. Yet, the Taipei paddler 🌱ran him too close for comfort in the third game before Sathiyan prevailed to go 2-1 up. Soon after, Sathiyan completed the job without a fuss.
He will be up next against South Korean Lim Jongh🌜oon (No. 59), who defeated Chinese Lin Gaoyuan (No. 8) in a Round of 64 match. But, Sharath Kamal went down to Sweden's Anton Kallberg 1-3 (11-6, 7-11, 6-11, 8-11) in less than 40 minutes.
After going 1-0 up in the match, the world number 34 Indian veteran lost the next three against the Swede, ranked No. 31 in the w🐟orld. Another Indian ace Manika Batra also failed to capitalise on a hard-fought win in the first game against Mo Zhang to make her exit in the first round.
Manika, who is ranked 46, lost the initia🌄tive when the Canadian player of Chinese origin, ranked four places ahead of her, won the next two games on extended points to lead 2-1. In the fourth game, both were neck and neck at 5-5, but the Canadian led 8-7 before wrapping up the match 12-14, 12-10, 13-11, 11-8.
Meanwhile, Suhana Saini and Yashaswini Ghorpade of India bagged their first gold when they defeated Elena Zaharia and Luciana Mitrofan of Romania in straight games (11-9, 11-7, 11-6) in the WTT Youth St🐬ar Contender Doha 2022 on Friday night.
No other Indian, individually or as a pair, has ever achieved the feat in Star Contender championshi🐽ps be❀fore.
The second-seeded Suhana and Yashaswini had accounted for the Taipei and French combination of Huang Yu-Jin and Charlotte Lutz 11-9, 9-11, 11-6, 11-7 in the quarterfinals and followed it up with a w🔜in over the Italian duo of Sophie Earley and Nicole Arlia 11-9, 11-6, 6-11, 11-5 in the semi-finals.
