WTT Star Contender: Manika Batra stars with three wins, Sharath crashes out

Star women paddler Manika Batra led the Indian performance with three wins across formats as main draw engagements in the World Table Tennis WTT Star Contender Goa got underway here at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor StadiumManika presently at world rank wr 34 first won her womens singles Round of 64 match and then successively partnered Archana Kamath and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran to reach the quarterfinals of the womens and mixed doubles respectively in her first appearance at a home WTT tournamentSutirtha Mukherjee was the other Indian to win all her matches on the day emerging triumphant in the womens singles and doubles respectivelyHowever in what will be heartbreak for home fans Indian legend Achanta Sharath Kamal bowed out of the tournament after going down in both his singles and doubles matchesIn the morning session Sharath and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost their mens doubles Round of 16 match to Koreans Jaehyun An and Seungmin Cho 31 116 117 711 118 Then in the final match of the day rising Kazakh star Kirill Gerassimenko defeated the reigning Commonwealth Games champion in straight games 30 118 117 118 to break Indian heartsManika reignsManika the highestranked Indian in womens singles got off to a flying start early in the first session defeating 152ndranked Englishwoman Ho TinTin 30 114118115 She then partnered Archana to a hardfought 32 811 911 115 116 1210 win over the Hong Kong China pairing of Li Ching Wan and Zhu Chengzhu after being 02 down at one stage to the qualifiers Finally in the evening session her pairing with Sathiyan prevailed over the Korean pair of Lim Jonghoon and Shin Yubin in four games 31 117311116116 in mixed doubles matchAlso Read Irsquove been in tears every morning since CWG defeat Manika BatraI am really happy that this tournament WTT Star Contender is happening for the first time in India The home crowd is here and I am really happy that people will come to cheer me and cheer all the Indian players Today I won my singlesdoubles and mixed doublesMixed doubles were really tough as we have lost against them twice before But this time we won and I am really happy with that win Lets see what happens in this tournament Ill give my 10037 and my best for my country and for myself said Manika on WednesdayManika Batra with Sathyan G post their mixed double win against Shin Yubin and Lim Jonghoon Korea RepublicFantastic win I think by far I would rate this as one of the bestever mixed doubles win They are a very solid pair technically they are very strong and they have been winning backtoback tournaments in WTT events So to beat such a strong Korean pair is definitely one of the best ever wins for us said Sathyan Gnanasekaran post their Mixed Double winSutirtha too put it across compatriot Suhana Saini 117117811 before winning her opening doubles match with Ayhika Mukherjee The Indian pair pulled off a creditable 30 119 116 115 victory over the EgyptianPolish pair of Natalia Bajor and Yousra Helmy to make the last eight They now play the crack Swedish pair of Linda Bergstrom and Christina Karllberg who were comfortable 30 winners against Indias Poymantee Baisya and Anannya BasakDays upsetsThere was also a major upset in the mens doubles where reigning world champions and second seeds Kristian Karlsson and Mattias Falck of Sweden were ousted by the Japanese duo of Yuto Kuzikuri and Mizuki Oikawa 23 1214112911114911 in their first Round of 16 matchFalck wr 36 had a day to forget as he also went down to Korean Daeseong Cho wr 193 30 111117114 in his mens singles round of 64 match In another minor upset in the mens singles Korean Jaehyun An wr 49 beat Croat Tomislav Pucar wr 46 in five gamesIn womens singles world number 30 Xiaona Shan of Germany went down to world number 120 Hayeong Kim 03 1181412115 In the afternoon session Thai girl Orawan Paranang wr 119 shocked Bernadette Szocs wr 32 of Romania in five games Then in the evening session Korean Zion Lee wr 71 upset American Lily Zhang wr 27 31 12101187111210 in a pulsating encounterFinally another Korean Yang Haeun wr 175 a former mixed doubles world champion and Asian Games bronze medalist rolled back the years in the secondlast match of the day to down Swede Christina Kallberg wr 69 in four games The 29yearold Yang has reached as high as 11 in the world ranking at one timeWith the big guns slated to come in on Thursday the first day of the main tournament otherwise largely went according to rankings and seedingsSathiyan wards off HarmeetIn the mens singles Sathiyan wr 41 took out a fighting Harmeet Desai wr 142 in four games in a match pregnant with Indian interests He won the first easily at 114 but Harmeet came back to win the second 1012 and then the third also went more than the distance as Sathiyan took it 1311 before closing out the fourth at 119In other mens singles results three Frenchmen Simon Gauzywr 32 Emmanuel Lebbesenwr 54 Felix Lebrunwr 70 two Germans Benedikt Dudawr 35 Ricardo Waltherwr 63 two Chinese Zhou Qihaowr 40 Liang Yanningwr 47 one Swede Jon Perssonwr 45 one Portuguese Joao Geraldowr 51 one Finn Benedek Olahwr 61 and one Hungarian Bence Majoroswr 112 also won their respective matches Indians Payas Jain and Wesley Do Rosario could not cross the round of 64 barrier going down to Ricardo and Emmanuel respectively Zhou Qihao wr 40 Mizuki Oikawa wr 75Yashaswini and Sreeja go downIn the womens singles two Indian youngsters besides Suhana lost their round of 64 matches Against the world number 38 Miyu Nagasaki Yashaswini Ghorpade looked a bit out of depth as she went down 03 311511911 to the formidable Japanese Sreeja Akula was also up against higherranked world number 39 Hana Goda of Egypt and went down 13 2111311118112The other wins in the womens singles were by the likes of ChengIChing wr 31 of Chinese Taipei Suthasini Sawettabut wr 35 of Thailand Liu Yangzi wr 36 of Australia Miwa Harimoto wr 41 of Japan Elizabeta Samara wr 43 of Romania Choi Hyojoo wr 50 of Korea and Linda Bergstrom wr 57 of SwedenHarmeet Manav go throughThree Indian mens doubles pairs including that of Sharath and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost their round of 16 matches to be eliminated from the tournamentThe only Indian pair to win on the day was that of Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar who put it across fellow Indians Ronit Bhanja and Jeet Chandra 32 911118811116115 in five close games The pair of Manush Shah and Snehit Suravajjula also lost 13 to the French duo of Bastien Lambert and Jules RollandTwo Indian pairs win in womens doublesIn the womens doubles two Indian pairs won while three others tasted defeat Apart from Manika and Archana and Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee the others could not make much headwayAmong those to make an exit were Sreeja Akula and Diya Chitale who went down to the Chinese Taipei pair of Cheng IChing and Li YuJhun 03 611411211 Cheng is ranked as high as 31 in the world in womens singles Tejaswini Ghorpade and Suhana Saini were also ousted by the Korean duo of Nayeong Kim and Cheonhui Joo in four games 31611411117711A total of three Korean pairs along with two Indians and a pair each from Chinese Taipei Japan and Sweden made the womens doubles quartersIn the mixed doubles as well two Indian pairs Wesley Do Rosario and Suhana Saini and Manav Thakkar and Archana Kamath lost to more accomplished and experienced opponents in the round of 16 itself before Manika and Sathiyan gave the format some cheerHere too the Koreans were the most successful on the day as three of their combinations went through to the quarters Two Japanese pairs also made it along with a French and a German pairThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever