After a brilliant performance by the Indians at the WTT Feeder in Beirut, the Varazdin campaign has been a disappointing one.
The Indian challenge ended there in the quarterfinals. India crashed out of all of their events by the end of quarterfinals.
In Men’s Singles Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, who just won the WTT Feeder Beirut 2024 Men’s
Singles event a couple of weeks ago, had a first round exit in the Round of 32 after a defeat at the hands of his fellow compatriot Snehit who won 3-0 (11-9, 11-2, 11-7).
Snehit ended up losing his next match in the round of 16 against Eduardo Lonescu
by 0-3 (5-11,3-11,7-11)
Harmeet Desai won the Round of 32 by defeating Adrien Rassenfosse 3-2 (10-12, 11-8, 4-11, 11-9, 11-6) in a tough-fought battle.
In the Round of 16, he defeated World No. 37 Kirill Gerassimenko 3-0 (11-8, 11-
3, 11-9) to reach the quarterfinals.
This was the first time an Indian defeated
Kirill in men’s singles match ever. However, in the quarterfinals, his winning streak came to an end by South Korean An Jae-hyun in a hard-fought match where Harmeet was pushed to the
edge, but ultimately lost the match 2-3 (11-5,2-11,15-13,8-11,7-11)
He was the lone warrior who reached the quarterfinals in the singles event.
In Women’s Singles Yashaswini Ghorpade won her tough Round of 32 match against Zhu Chengzhu by 3-2 (8-11, 12-10, 11-9, 6-11, 11-6).
Her campaign eventually came to an end when she lost her Round of 16 match against Lee Eunhye 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-4).
In Mixed Doubles Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra won their Round of 16 match
against Ibrahim Gündüz and Sibel Altinkaya 3-0 (12-10, 11-5, 11-8).
But the second-seeded pair eventually lost in the quarterfinal in a tightly contested match against Lubomir Pistej and Barbora Balazova 2-3 (11-9,6-11,4-11,11-13,12-14)
And with this, India’s disappointing campaign at Varazdin 2024 ended.
Written By Naman Jain