Panaji (Goa)[India], March 3 (ANI): In yet one more day of upsets, Indian girls paddlers Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee did the star-turn for India on the WTT Star Contender Goa, overcoming higher-ranked opponents to maneuver into the final 16 stage.
The largest upset of the day on the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium was nonetheless by 20-year-old Korean teenager Cho Daeseong, who ousted Chinese world primary in males’s singles Fan Zhendong.
The day, so far as hosts India have been involved, belonged to the 2 girls paddlers Manika and Sutirtha. Manika, India primary ousted Puerto Rican star and world quantity (wr) 14 Adriana Diaz 3-1 (11-9,11-8,5-11,11-8) within the night session. Sutirtha, presently ranked 146, had earlier within the morning session, bought the higher of Jia Nan Yuan (wr 18) of France 3-0 (11-7,11-8,11-7).
While Manika shall be up in opposition to China’s Qian Tianyi (wr 20) whereas Sutirtha will face yet one more veteran Fu Yu (wr 19) of Portugal.
An exhausted Manika, whose defensive chops have been too scorching to deal with for Adriana, stated after the match, “I am really happy that I won today against Adriana Diaz. Let’s see what happens in the next round. I have played her before and will have some strategies against her. I’ll just give my best and I will just play my best game tomorrow for my country and for myself.”Sutirtha, whose impeccable timing and energy on the forehand have been her power within the event, additionally shared her ideas after the match saying, “I feel absolutely great since I managed to beat a top 20 player. Tomorrow I’ll be playing against Yu Fu and I am hoping that I will win against her as well. I had faced Yuan previously also and had conceded the match with a close margin. This time I didn’t think much about the rankings and I just went with a mindset to play freely and that led me to this victory.”The largest shock of day 4 got here within the males’s singles when giant-killing Korean southpaw Cho, got here again from two video games right down to beat Fan 3-2 (7-11,6-11,12-10,11-9,11-8) to maneuver to the spherical of 16. He had on Wednesday bought the higher of Swede Mattias Falck (wr 36).
Thrilled together with his spectacular win over the world primary, Cho confided, “It is the best win of my career and I am very happy. I didn’t think that I would win against Fan Zhendong. My heart was thumping fast when the final set reached 10-8. But I felt very good when I woke up today. As it is a world tournament, I will try my best to win the next game.”The second and third seeds within the males’s singles, Japanese teenage livewire Tomokazu Harimoto (wr 4) and Swede Truls Moregard (wr 6) additionally made it to the final 16 with wins over Liang Yanning of China and Joao Geraldo of Portugal, respectively.
In one other massive upset within the girls’s singles, Japanese second seed Hina Hayata (wr 6) went down 1-3 (11-9,8-11,3-11,4-11), in her spherical of 32 match to Chinese Taipei’s Cheng-I-Ching (wr 31). Top-seeded Chinese Wang Yidi (wr 4) although, was a cushty 3-0 winner over yet one more Japanese Miyu Nagasaki (wr 38).
A minor flutter was additionally brought on by Thailand’s Suthasini Sawettabut (wr 35), who bought the higher of Jihee Jeon (wr 21) of Korea 3-1 (11-8,12-10,8-11,11-4). The third upset within the girls’s singles was brought on by yet one more Korean Choi Hyojoo (wr 50), who defeated Doo Hoi Kem (wr 9) of Honk Kong, China, 3-1 and can subsequent meet Miu Hirano of JapanAs many as six Chinese gained on day 4. Among them world quantity seven Liang Jingkun, quantity 12 Lin Gaoyuan and quantity 24 Lin Shidong in males’s singles and world quantity 20 Qian Tianyi, quantity 22 Liu Weishan and quantity 26 Kuai Man in girls’s singles.
Four completely different nations made the ladies’s doubles semi-finals, two of them on the expense of Indian pairs. Manika Batra and Archana Kamath went down of their quarter-finals in opposition to Cheng-I Ching and Li Yu-Jhun of Chinese Taipei. They gained the primary 11-8 however the Chinese Taipei pair got here again to win the subsequent three (15-13,11-9,11-7) and with that the match. India’s hopes within the girls’s doubles have been then snuffed out fully when Swedes Linda Bergstrom and Christina Kallberg ousted Ayhika and Sutirtha Mukherjee by an identical 3-1 (11-7,13-11,6-11,11-7) margin. Japan and Korea are the opposite semi-finalists within the girls’s doubles.
The males’s doubles shall be a straight combat between Japan and Korea as two of their pairs conflict with one another, in every of the 2 semi-finals. One of them, Lim Jonghoon and Jang Woojin of Korea bought the higher of Indians Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar 3-1 (12-10,11-8,7-11,11-6).
The Indian blended doubles pair of Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran made a quarter-final exit, taking place to Miwa Harimoto and Shunsuke Togami of Japan in three straight video games (3-0: 12-10,11-6,11-6). They face the French pair of Emmanuel Lebesson and Jia Nan Yuan within the semi-finals. The different blended doubles semi-final shall be yet one more Japan-Korea affair. (ANI)