The Final day of the second WTT Beirut Feeder series starts today. With India having atleast one representative in all the five categories,fans can definitely look forward to an exciting day of table tennis.
Let’s take a quick look at the Schedule & the Indian prospects in action today. The semi finals & finals will be played today for the singles category while the Doubles categories will have its finals lined up.
Men’s Singles-
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran is India’s sole representative in the Men’s Singles. He won the 1st Beirut Feeder, a couple of days ago and will look to continue his fine run with back to back titles. He will face a formidable opponent in Kirill Gerassimeko of Kazakhstan. Kirill has been in superb form this year,with some big wins against top 15 players like Ovtcharov and Dang Qiu. Sathiyan may find it hard to overcome Kirill,but if he does, he could potentially face top seed Chuang Chih Yuan again,someone whom he beat in the semis of the 1st Beirut Feeder. Sathiyan will see a big jump in the rankings next week,with him possibly moving into the top 60s back again,if he wins this tournament as well.
Women’s Singles-
Sreeja Akula will be in action against the top seed WR36 Suh Hyo won. The South korean will pose a good challenge for Sreeja, but Sreeja has a positive win/loss record against Suh, so a win here shouldn’t be a surprise at all. If Sreeja manages to cross the semis hurdle, she will face either Croation Ivana Malobabic or Sarah De Nutte of Luxembourg in the finals. A tournament win will possibly propel Sreeja into the top 40 in World Rankings,closing the gap with Manika who is at WR38 currently.
Men’s Doubles-
The men’s doubles finals will be an all Indian affair with Top seeds and India No 1 pair Manav Thakkar/Manush Shah will face compatriots Akash Pal/Mudit Dani. Manav/Manush has been in good form,reaching back to back finals in the two Beirut Feeder series events and will be the favourites to win the title this tym,after finishing as runner ups in the 1st event. They will move into the Top 15 in world rankings next week regardless of any result today.
Women’s Doubles-
Second seeds Sreeja Akula/Diya Chitale will be in action in the Women’s Doubles final against Top seeds Doo Hoi Kem/Zhu Chengzhu, who are also the champions of the 1st Beirut Feeder. A win today should see them moving into the top 30s in the doubles rankings next week.
Mixed Doubles-
This will be the most important event for India from an Olympic standpoint,as Sathiyan/Manika will look to get back into the top 20 in rankings inorder to keep their hopes alive for a mixed doubles olympic quota. They will play another Indian pair Akash pal/Poymantee Baisya,who had knocked out the top seeds en route to the finals. Sathiyan/Manika will be the favourites for the win but they wouldn’t want to take their compatriots lightly at all.
Written By | Deep
