Gandhidham: Two Surat paddlers-Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar-did the nation proud as they booked their pre-quarterfinals berths at the WTT Contender Lagos, Nigeria 2023 on Friday.
World no. 134, Harmeet caused a major upset when he toppled world no. 73 Lubomir Pistej of Slovakia 3-1 (11-5, 13-15, 11-7, 11-6) to keep the Indian flag flying high and book his pre-quarterfinal berth.
Manav, ranked 122 in the world, weaved his magic too as he progressed into the pre-quarterfinals after brushing aside world no. 155 and home-lad Olajide Omotaya of Nigeria 3-1 (11-7, 11-9, 10-12, 11-8).
For a place in quarters, the 22-year-old Manav and Harmeet both have their tasks cut out as the former takes on world no. 26 Xiang Peng of China and the later goes up against world no. 12 Jang Woojin of Japan.
Manav-Archana in semis, assured of medal
After his singles’ stupendous show, Manav, partnering Archana Kamath, stormed into the mixed doubles’ semifinal of the WTT Contender Lagos. The Indian mixed doubles pair, who are ranked as high as world no. 4, got the better of world no. 6 ranked pair of Tin-Tin Ho and Samuel Walker of England 3-1 (11-6, 12-14, 11-8, 11-7) in the pre-quarterfinal.
It was a walk in the park in the all-Indian quarterfinal matchup where Manav-Archana pummelled world no. 8 pair of Diya Chitale and FR Snehit 3-0 (11-9, 11-3, 11-9) to book their semis berth and thus assured themselves of a medal.
President, Gujarat State Table Tennis Association, Pramod Chaudhary expressed his delight over Surat boys’ brilliant show. “Harmeet and Manav have been performing well for India for a long time. Today, they did us all proud with their superb performance in Nigeria,” he said.
