Sharath-Sathiyan enter final, Manika loses in pre-quarters

Budapest, February 21

The Indian pairing of Sharath Kamal and G Sathiyan upset top seeds Kwan Kit Ho and Chun Ting Wong of Hong Kong to enter the men’s doubles final of the ITTF World Tour Hungary Open here today.

The Indian qualifiers won 11-7 12-10 4-11 4-11 11-9 and earned a meeting with second seeds Duda Benedikt and Franziska Patrick in Saturday’s final. The Germans defeated Poland’s Dyjas Jakub and Belgium’s Nuytinck Cedric 11-4 11-5 8-11 11-3.

Kamal and Manika Batra take on Germany’s Patrick Franziska and Petrissa Solja in the mixed doubles semifinals.

In the women’s singles event, Manika failed to go past Japanese Miu Hirano in the pre-quarterfinals, losing 9-11 1-11 7-11 7-11. Manika had beaten Szu-Yu Chen of Chinese Taipei in a tough Round of 32 match after being 0-3 down. Sathiyan made an exit in the men’s singles after losing in straight games to top seed Harimoto Tomokazu. — PTI