NEW DELHI: India’s highest ranked men’s paddler G Sathiyan remained in contention for a place in the Asian Cup table tennis quarterfinals, while both A Sharath Kamal and women’s paddler Manika Batra were knocked out in Yokohama on Friday.
Sathiyan, seeded 10th, was in Group C. He lost to World No 8 Koki Niwa of Japan (11-7, 11-9, 10-12, 11-8), Taipei’s World No 21 Lin Yun-Ju (10-12, 11-6, 11-9, 11-8) and World No 6 Sangsu Lee of Korea (11-7, 11-4, 6-11, 11-5). However, the 26-year-old pulled off an upset win over Chuang Chih-Yuan (11-5, 11-4, 11-8), thus avoiding finishing last and getting knocked out.
In Saturday’s knock-out round, the World No 28 will take on World No 53 Kirill Gerassimenko of Kazakhstan. If Sathiyan defeats the Kazakh, he will reach the quarterfinals, thereby greatly enhancing his chances of booking a World Cup berth.
“The bronze in the Oman Open and a few notable victories in the Qatar Open helped my confidence. I went to Chennai and tweaked a few things in my game with my coach S Raman Sir which really helped me here. Asia Cup is a very tough platform but I was happy with my performance. The aim is to reach the quarters and I feel I can do it,” he told this daily from Japan. This is his second appearance in this competition.
Sharath was placed in a very tough Group B. The World No 37 lost all three of his matches. He lost to China’s World No 11 Ma Long (11-5, 11-5, 11-5), World No 21 Lin Yun-Ju of Taipei (10-12, 11-6, 11-9, 11-8) and World No 4 Harimoto Tomokazu of Japan (11-6, 14-12, 9-11, 5-11, 11-7). The match against Harimoto was very close with Sharath, at one stage, leading in the final set but could not see it through.
“My final match was really close. I should have seen it through. I was 10-7 ahead. I’m disappointed,” Sharath added. In women’s singles, Manika won one out of three Group D matches.