TT World Team Championships: Men’s team stuns No. 2 Germany

PTI

Chengdu, October 2

G Sathiyan won both his singles matches, including a fighting victory against world No. 9 Dang Qiu, to script India’s stunning 3-1 win over second seeds Germany in the group stage of the table tennis World Team Championships Finals here today.

World No. 37 Sathiyan first beat No. 36 Duda Benedikt (11-13 4-11 11-8 11-4 11-9) before edging out Germany’s highest-ranked player Qiu (10-12 7-11 11-8 11-8 11-9). “The match against Qiu was definitely much tougher. He is a top-10 player. It was a high quality match as well,” Sathiyan said.

After Sathiyan’s win over Benedikt, India No. 2 Harmeet Desai lost to Qui (7-11 9-11 13-11 3-11). Manav Thakkar helped India restore their lead with a 13-11 6-11 11-8 12-10 win over higher-ranked Ricardo Walther.

The 17th-ranked India had beaten Uzbekistan in their opening group game yesterday. They need to finish in the top-two to advance to the pre-quarterfinals.

In the women’s draw, India recorded their first win of the group stage with a 3-0 result over Czech Republic. The Manika Batra-led side had lost to Germany yesterday.

Batra defeated Hana Matelova 11-6 11-6 8-11 12-10 before Akula Sreeja and Diya Chitale won their singles matches against Marketa Sevcikova and Katerina Tomanovska, respectively.

Sreeja won 11-5 11-3 11-8 but Chitale had to work harder to prevail 11-13 15-13 12-10 14-12.

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