Mapusa, 23 Jan: India’s Manav Thakkar and Ayhika Mukherjee began their campaign with comfortable victories while veteran Sharath Kamal failed to qualify for the singles main draw at WTT Star Contender here on Tuesday.
Manav blanked Anshuman Agarwal 3-0 (11-7, 11-4, 11-4) to move into Men’s Singles Qualifying Round 3 where he will face Senegal’s Ibrahima Diaw.
In the women’s singles category, Ayhika Mukherjee defeated Sayali Wani 3-0 (11-9, 11-2, 12-10) in Qualifying Round 2, while Poymantee Baisya beat Pritha Priya Vartikar 3-0 (12-10, 11-7, 11-7) in Qualifying Round 1.
Sharath, who has dropped to as low as 99 in the world rankings, and 255th ranked Sanil Shetty faced defeats in the Men’s Singles Qualifying Round 2 to exit the tournament.
Sharath went down 2-3 (11-6, 12-10, 4-11, 15-17, 3-11) to world no 142 Kang Dongsoo of South Korea, whereas Algeria’s Mehdi Bouloussa beat Sanil 3-2 (14-12, 11-9, 11-13, 7-11, 11-6).
The tournament is co-hosted by Stupa Sports Analytics and Ultimate Table Tennis under the guidance of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI).
In the mixed doubles category, Manush Shah and Diya Chitale defeated the Singaporean pair of Quek Izaac and Zhou Jingyi 3-0 (11-4, 11-7, 11-6) while Sreeja Akula and Snehit Suravajjula beat Pang Koen and Wong Ru of Singapore 3-1 (11-9, 13-11, 7-11, 11-8) to reach Qualifying Round 2. (PTI)