agencies
MUSCAT, Mar 5: India's Manav Thakkar and Archana Kamath failed tocross the final hurdle in the mixed doubles,going down to the Chinese pair of Wang Chuqin and Chen Xintong 3-11,3-11, 6-11, as did the women's doubles duo of Sutirtha Mukherjeeand Ayhika Mukherjee, who lost 6-11, 11-8, 10-12, 7-11 to Zhang Ruiand Kuai Man, also from China, to end up with silver medalsin the WTT Contender here on Saturday.Sreeja Akula and Selenadeepthi Selvakumar earned a bronze on Friday.The pair lost in the semifinals to Sutirtha and Ayhika.The latest results for the Indian paddlers did come as a surpriseagainst higher-ranked players that combined for China.
But what was creditable was that they could finish on the podium wherethe other Indians failed because of reasonableexpectations from G. Sathiyan and Manika Batra, considered the maincogs in Team India.In contrast to the subdued performance of the mixed pair, Sutirtha andAyhika fought hard against Zhang and Kuai, especially in the thirdgame.
But the Chinese duo, with great understanding and in a good form,could not be denied the gold.
Yet, the Contender at Muscat set the ball rolling for Team India as itbegan the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, and the Asian Games inHangzhou campaigns, later this year.The focus of the paddlers will now shift to the east, where most ofthem will compete in the Singapore Smash 2022 that carries a $ 2million prize purse. The event begins with the qualifiers on March 7and runs through March 20 |
