WTT Contender Tunis 2021: Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai enter men's doubles final after inspiring comeback
Indian table tennis men’s doubles pair G Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai entered the WTT Contender Tunis 2021 final. They beat Nando Ecseki and Adam Szudi 3-2 on Friday.
Sathiyan and Harmeet made a brilliant comeback to register a victory and confirm a medal for India. The pair came from behind and got the better of the Hungarian pair 8-11, 12-14, 11-9, 11-8, 11-9 in the semi-final clash.
Everyone loves a great comeback! 👏👏👏
🇮🇳 Indian duo Harmeet Desai & Sathiyan Gnanasekaran comes back from 0-2 down to beat 🇭🇺 Hungarian pair Nandor Ecseki & Adam Szudi 3-2 to reach #WTTTunis Final!
#WTT #TableTennis #PingPong https://t.co/uf9IMVcVBF
The Indian duo will face Alexandra Cassin and Emmanual Lebesson of France in the finals on Saturday.
Sathiyan lose men’s singles quarterfinal clash at the WTT Contender
While it was a good showing in the men’s doubles fixture for Sathiyan, he lost his men’s singles match. He suffered a straight 3-0 loss against Germany's Dang Qiu.
He also lost the mixed doubles semi-final clash. Sathiya and Manika Batra took on the French combination of Emmanual Lebesson and Jia Nan Yuan in a closely fought last four clash.
MD pair 🏓🏓 @sathiyantt / @HarmeetDesai storms into FINAL!!🔥
The duo beat Hungary's 🇭🇺 Ecseki / Szudi 3️⃣-2️⃣ to reach final of WTT Contender Tunis 2021. They will play the final on 30 Oct
XD pair @manikabatra_TT/ Sathiyan go down 2-3 against France's 🇫🇷 Yuan / Lebesson in SF https://t.co/vMb8ZuDZ7M
Sathiyan and Manika cruised to a two game lead but lost momentum conceding the match 11-7 11-9 6-11 9-11 9-11.
Meanwhile, India’s veteran paddler Sharath Kamal had a disappointing outing in Tunis. He bowed out in the opening round against Brazil’s Vitor Ishiy 3-2.
Other men’s singles players Manav Thakkar, Snehit Suravajjula, Mudit Dani and Harmeet Desai failed to qualify for the main draws.
Indian women paddlers also disappointed at the WTT Contender competition.
Country’s top-ranked player Manika Batra exited in her opening match against Germany’s Nina Mittelham 3-1.
Selena Selvakumar was also knocked out in round of 32. She lost against Dina Meshref of Egypt.
Madhurika Patkar and Ananya Basak received a bye in their first round of qualification. However, both of them failed to qualify for the main draws.
Read: Bhavina Patel elated to realize two dreams in a short span
While Madhurika lost to Christina Kallberg of Sweden 3-1 in round 3, Ananya was knocked out in the second round.