The Indian pair of G. Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai clinched the men’s doubles title at the World Table Tennis Contender Tunis in Tunis, Tunisia, on Saturday, with an 11-9, 4-11, 11-9, 11-6 victory over Emmanuel Lebesson and Alexandra Cassin of France in the final.
After losing the first game, the French pair fought back taking a 5-1 and 9-3 lead to pocket the second game. The third game was close with leads changing hands between the two pairs.
However, it was the Sathiyan-Harmeet duo that won it at 11-9. Running up a 4-1 lead in the fourth, the Indians never looked back after taking a 6-5 lead.
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"I have reached the final playing with Sharath anna, [Soumyajit] Ghosh and Sanil [Shetty], but I have never won a men's doubles crown. This is the first time I am playing with Harmeet. I am extremely happy. The key factor for our win was the speed," Sathiyan told Sportstar .
Harmeet, who had won the doubles title with Ghosh at the 2015 Commonwealth Championship, was equally ecstatic. "Winning with Sathiyan is really special. Since Sathiyan had earlier seen [Emmanuel] Lebesson in the mixed doubles semifinals, we devised certain strategies and it worked well for us," he said.
"We are also trying different [men's doubles] combinations to prepare for the 2022 Commonwealth Games."
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