World Table Tennis Contender: Sharath, Manika lose in first round

India's Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra bowed out in the men's and women's singles first round matches at the World Table Tennis Contender held in Tunis on Wednesday.

FILE PHOTO: Achanta Sharath Kamal of India in action.

India's Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra bowed out in the men's and women's singles first round matches at the World Table Tennis Contender held in Tunis on Wednesday. While Sharath lost to to Vitor Ishiy of Brazil by three games to two, Manika was outplayed by Germany's Nina Mittelham 3-1.

G. Sathiyan was the lone Indian to progress to the second round in the singles event. The Indian scored an 11-9, 11-9, 11-9 win over Alvaro Robles of Spain. He will face Ibrahima Diaw of Senegal on Thursday.

Later in the day, India's top mixed doubles pair of G. Sathiyan and Manika Batra beat Horacio Cifuentes and Camila Arguelles of Argentina 9-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-9 in the first round (round of 16).

 

India had a good day in men's doubles as the two pairs of Sharath Kamal and Manav Thakkar and Sathiyan and Harmeet Desi posted wins in the first round (round of 16).

In the quarterfinals to be held on Thursday, the Sharath-Manav pair will take on the Hungary's Nandor Ecseki and Adam Szudi while the Sathiyan-Harmeet duo will face Emmanuel Lebesson and Alexandra Cassin (France).

The results:Men's singles (round of 32): Vitor Ishiy (Bra) bt Sharath Kamal 5-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-8, 12-10 G. Sathiyan bt Alvaro Robles (Esp) 11-9, 11-9, 11-9 Women's singles (round of 32): Nina Mittelham (Ger) bt Manika Batra 11-6, 10-12, 11-8, 11-3 Dina Meshref (Egy) bt Selena Selvakumar 11-8, 11-3, 11-4 Men's doubles (round of 16) : G. Sathiyan & Harmeet Desai bt Kilian Ort & Tobias Hippler (Ger) 15-13, 6-11, 11-9, 5-11, 12-10; Sharath Kamal & Manav Thakkar bt Alexander Chen & David Serdaroglu (Aut) 12-10, 5-11, 11-5, 11-5 Mixed doubles (round of 16) : G. Sathiyan & Manika Batra bt Horacio Cifuentes & Camila Arguelles (Arg) 9-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-9