The past week was an action packed week for Indian Table Tennis fans with two back to back Feeder Series tournaments being held in Beirut, Lebanon.
The Indian Paddlers didn’t disappoint making full use of the opportunity to produce some great performances and collected some valuable ranking points in the process.Here is a quick summary of the performances in Beirut over the week.
WTT Feeder Beirut (19-21 March):
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran found back his form, winning the Men’s Singles title beating compatriot Manav Thakkar in an all India final.
Earlier in the semis,both had scored upset wins over World medalists Chuang Chih yuan and An Jaehyun respectively. Sathiyan showed glimpses of his old self producing some fine gameplay, dismantling opponents with his sharp and well placed forehand attacks combined with precise backhand strokes.
Mixed Doubles was again an all Indian affair with Manush Shah/Diya Chitale winning the title beating Manav Thakkar/Archana Kamath in four games in the finals.
In the Men’s Doubles, top seeds Manav Thakkar/Manush Shah finished runners up loosing to second seeded Cuban pair 1-3, in the finals.
Manav despite being in three finals failed to win a single one and finished runners in 3 categories.
A good performance by him nonetheless. None of the indian paddlers managed to reach the finals in Women’s Single’s and Women’s doubles categories.
WTT Feeder Beirut ll(22-24 March)
The second Beirut feeder tournament proved to be an even more successful one Indian paddlers came back with three titles and a runners up finish.
In the Women’s Singles Sreeja Akula won her second WTT Feeder title of the year beating Sarah De Nutte of Luxembourg in the finals.
In the semis she defeated top seed Suh Hyo Won in another great result.
In the men’s doubles top seeds Manav/Manush won their 1st ever WTT title as a pair after failing to win it at the first feeder tournament.
They beat Compratriots Mudit Dani/Akash Pal in the finals.
Mixed doubles was an all india affair again as newly formed pair of Akash pal/Poymantee Baisya produced a huge upset beating second seeds and favourites Manika/Sathiyan to lift the title.
Earlier they beat the top seed pair from Luxembourg as well en route the finals. Great result for the pair.
Sreeja Akula/Diya Chitale finished as runner ups loosing to the top seeds Doo Hoi Kem/Zhu Chengzhu in the finals. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran couldn’t get past the semis this time,as he faced an expected loss against the infallible Kirill Gerassimeko of Kazakhstan in straight games.
Change in Rankings
Owing to the good performances in Beirut,Indian paddlers will experience a positive growth in the rankings with Sreeja Akula achieving a new career high ranking of World No 40. She is now just 2 spots behind Manika Batra who is at no 38.
A huge jump in rankings for Sathiyan Gnanasekaran as he will jump 43 places and move into the top 60 as India no 2 in men’s singles. Manav Thakkar will be the new India no 3 at WR63 and Harmeet Desai will slip to India no 4.
In the Men’s doubles Manav/Manush will move into the top 15s for the first time in their career,while Sathiyan/Manika will be back into the top 20 of the mixed doubles rankings in a very important development from Olympic Qualification point of view.
Written By | Deep