Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee guaranteed themselves a medal at the Asian Table Tennis Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, after reaching the women’s doubles semifinals on Saturday.
The Indian pair of Ayhika and Sutirtha, who created history by grabbing a bronze medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games, defeated South Korea’s Kim Nayeong and Lee Eunhye 3-1 (10-12, 11-7, 11-9, 11-8) in the quarterfinals.
It will be the first all-Indian women’s doubles pair to stand on the podium at the Asian Championships. Gool Nasikwala won a gold medal in women’s doubles, partnering Japan’s Yoshiko Tanaka, when the erstwhile Table Tennis Federation of Asia had conducted the event for the first time in 1952 in Singapore.
Ayhika-Sutirtha duo, World No. 15, will face Japan’s Miwa Harimoto and Miyuu Kihara in the semifinals on Sunday.
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In men’s singles, Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar shocked higher-ranked South Korean opponents before losing in the round of 16.
World No. 115 Shah defeated World No. 23 and former world championships bronze medallist An Jaehyun 3-0 (11-9, 11-5, 11-6). On the other hand, World No. 60 Thakkar won 3-2 (5-11, 11-9, 5-11, 11-9, 11-7) against World No. 14 and Asian Games bronze medallist Jang Woojin.
In the round of 16, Shah lost 2-3 (12-14, 11-6, 11-7, 5-11, 8-11) to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-Ju while Thakkar went down 0-3 (4-11, 4-11, 8-11) to Hong Kong’s Chan Baldwin.
Harmeet Desai lost 0-3 (12-14, 7-11, 7-11) to South Korea’s Lim Jonghoon, World No. 30, in his round of 32 match.
In women’s singles, Manika Batra went down 1-3 (8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 5-11) to Harimoto in the round of 16.
