Indian table tennis stars Archana Kamath and Sreeja Akula pulled off major upsets at the WTT Star Contender Goa 2024, to make it to the Round of 16 on Friday. Kamath, ranked 134th in the world, came up with a surprise win over World No. 53 Jieni Shao of Portugal 3-2 (9-11, 11-5, 11-5, 8-11, 11-5). On the other hand, Akula, the World No. 66 player, beat WR-30 Hana Goda of Egypt 3-0 (11-8, 11-6, 14-12).
If that was not enough, star Manika Batra ousted Suh Hyo-won of South Korea 3-1 (11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7). But apart from that, there wasn’t anything else to rejoice about, as the doubles pairs came down crashing. The men’s doubles pair of Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah lost 3-1 (7-11, 11-7, 8-11, 9-11) to Chinese Taipei’s Kao Cheng-jui and Chuang Chih-yuan in the quarters.
In the mixed doubles, Sayali Wani and Taneesha Kotecha were ousted by Republic of Korea’s Shin Yubin and Eon Jihee 3-0 (11-2, 12-10, 11-2). Also, the women’s doubles team of Diya Chitale and Sreeja Akula lost 3-0 (11-9, 11-8, 11-8) against Cheng I-ching and Li Yu-jhun.
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Prior to this, India’s best doubles pair of G Sathiyan and Manika Batra lost their mixed doubles first round match. Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee in women’s doubles, also went out in the first round, and so did Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan.
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