Asian WTTC Continental Stage 2023: Sharath Kamal, Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula qualify for World Table Tennis Championship

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Reeth Tennison and Harmeet Desai also made it to the doubles events.

All nine Indian paddlers, who participated in the Asian WTTC Continental Stage 2023, have made the qualification cut for the World Table Tennis Championships, 2023 to be held in Durban, South Africa. Commonwealth Games 2022 table tennis champion Sharath Kamal, National champion Sreeja Akula, Asian Cup 2022 bronze medallist Manika Batra, and Manush Shah/Harmeet Desai reached the round of 16 stage at the Asian WTTC Continental Stage held in Doha, Qatar from 06-13 January 2023.

As per the qualifying criteria, both men and women are offered different quota slots for the World Championships.

Women’s singles - 28

Men’s singles - 25

Women’s doubles - 12

Men’s doubles - 14

Mixed doubles - 8

Each country is permitted only four entries in each category.

Results

R64 - Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost to Quek Issac (3-4)

Sharath Kamal

R64 - beat Jann Mari (4-0)

R32 - beat Ahmadian Amin (4-1)

Manika Batra

R64 - beat Maghdieva Markhabo (4-0)

R32 - beat Chengzu Zhu (4-0)

Sreeja Akula

R64 - beat Amrutha Phadke (4-0)

R32 - beat Chen Szu-Yu (4-3)

Swastika Ghosh

R64 - beat Akasheva Zhauresh (4-1)

R32 - lost Jeon Jihee (0-4)

Pos 17-24 - beat Hsing-Yin (4-3)

Doubles Events

R16 - Manika Batra/Sathiyan beat Hiroto/Miyu (4-1)

Sathiyan/Sharath Kamal beat Mohammed Abdulwahab/Khalil Al-Mohannandi (4-0)

Sathiyan/Sharath lost the round of 16 to the Chinese pair of Ma Long/Yuan Licen but came back to win against the Qatari pair in the 9-16 classification match.

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran failed to win a direct quota losing the opening encounter in the singles against a lower-ranked opponent from Singapore. He came back strongly in the doubles section to qualify in both men’s and mixed. Sathiyan will get a singles spot at WTTC through his rankings.

Sreeja Akula defeated WR 21 Chen Szu-Yu from Chinese Taipei (4-3) in a tight battle. Swastika Ghosh after losing her R16 battle defeated WR 70 Liu Hsing-Yin from Chinese Taipei (4-3) to book a spot at the World Table Tennis Championships.

Sreeja Akula/Reeth Tennison finished inside the top 12 and secured a quota. The Indian pair lost the R16 match against Jeon Yihee/Shin Yubin but won the 9-16 classification match against Wong Xin Ru/Roi Xuan of Singapore (4-0). Manush Shah/Harmeet Desai had an easy path winning the R16 against Amir Hossein/Ahmadian Amin (4-1). Diya Chitale took the fourth Indian women’s slot in the singles category defeating Wing Lam of Hong Kong in the classification round (25-32) classification match.

Achanta Sharath Kamal/Sreeja Akula had a poor outing finishing in the last spot without winning a single match. The pair won the gold medal in the 2022 Commonwealth Games.