TT World Championships Finals: Ayhika, Sathiyan move to next round; Manika, Sharath bow out

Houston, Nov 24: India experienced mixed fortunes at the first day of the 2021 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals here on Wednesday. While Ayhika Mukherjee and Sathiyan Ganansekaran sailed into Round of 64, Manika Batra and Sharath Kamal suffered shocking defeats.
Ayhika registered a comfortable victory over Farah Abdel Aziz of Egypt by 4-2 (11-7, 14-16, 8-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-6) and secured her spot at the women’s singles Round of 64.
She will next take on Hina Hayata of Japan.
In the men’s singles Junior World Championship, Sathiyan defeated Yaroslav Zhmudenko of Ukraine in straight games by 4-0 (11-2,11-9,11-4, 11-3) in the Round of 128. After a confident win over the Ukrainian, Sathiyan will be up against lower ranked Valdimir Sedorenko of Russia in Round-64.
On the other hand, veteran Indian paddler Sharath Kamal, who is ranked 30, suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of lower ranked Cedric Nuytinck of Belgium by 1-4 (11-9, 5-11,6-11, 7-11, 9-11).
Commonwealth Gold medalist and star Indian paddler Manika Batra couldn’t manage to get past her opponent Bruna Takahashi of Brazil and went down fighting by 3-4, (11-5, 15-13, 8-11, 4-11,6-11, 11-4, 7-11) in the women’s singles opening round.
Manika will now compete in the women’s doubles event along with her partner Archana Kamath.
In another men’s singles event, Amalraj Anthony lost to Bode Abiodun of Nigeria in a close contest by 3-4 (6-11, 11-5, 11-5,8-11, 12-10, 9-11, 6-11) and Harmeet Desai went down to Benedikt Duda of Germany 4-0 (9-11,7-11, 7-11,4-11).
Suteertha Mukherjee, who was the part of Gold medal winning Indian women’s team in Commonwealth Games 2018, suffered a loss against Choi Hyojoo of Korea by 1-4 (11-8, 4-11, 5-11, 0-11, 4-11) and crashed out in the opening round.
However, the mixed pairing of Sharath Kamal and Archana Girish Kamath registered straight sets victory over Algerian pair Kherouf Sami-Kessaci Katia in straight games by 11-7, 11-6, 11-6.
On the second day of the competition, men’s pairing of Harmeet Desai and Amalraj Anthony and women’s duo of Suteerth and Madhurika Patkar will begin their challenge in the doubles event.
A total of 128 players in men’s and women’s singles and 64 pairs in each of the doubles events will compete for the coveted title.
India has won only two medals at the World Table Tennis Championships, claiming bronze medals in men’s singles and men’s team events respectively at the inaugural 1926 edition. UNI