WTT Contender: Manika Batra loses in singles semi-finals, ends India's campaign

Batra beat the higher-ranked Chen Szu-Yu en route to the last four stage in women's singles.

After the qualifying rounds of the World Championships, the action shifted towards WTT Contender, Doha being held from 15 to 21 January 2023. Top Indian paddlers took part in the tournament with Manika Batra the lone Indian finishing inside the top four in two categories (singles and mixed doubles). A total of seven Indian paddlers participated but only three players could directly feature in the main draw with none from the qualifying draw progressed to the main draw.

Indian participation

Men’s Singles

Achanta Sarath Kamal

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran

Manush Utpal Shah

Harmeet Desai

Women’s Singles

Manika Batra

Swastika Ghosh

Yashashwini Ghorpade

Mixed Doubles

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran/Manika Batra

Results

Sathiyan’s poor form continued in the singles section as the number one paddler from India lost to WR 131 Pistej in the opening round. At the Asian Continental stage too, Sathiyan lost in the opening round to a lower-ranked player from Singapore. Next up he is going to part in the national ranking series set to be held in Surat.

Achanta Sarath Kamal beat WR 21 Chuang Chin-Yuan from Chinese Taipei (3-0) in the opening encounter. Sarath Kamal lost to the 41-year-old in their last meeting at the Asian Cup. Unfortunately, the Khel Ratna awardee couldn't progress further losing to WR 36 Xiang Peng (0-3).

Manush Shah lost in the third qualifying round and Harmeet Desai lost in the second qualifying round.

Manika Batra progressed to the semi-finals eventually losing to Chinese paddler Zhang Rui (1-3) after a valiant effort. Manika on her way to the semifinals beat higher-ranked Chen Szu-Yu (3-2) in the opening round and then beat WR 53 Choi Hyojoo (3-2). In the semi-finals, the Indian lost to WR 24 Zhang Rui (1-3). 

Manika after losing the first set came back stronger to win the second one. In the second set, the Indian paddler won eight consecutive points winning the set (11-2). Since then the Indian had no answer to her Chinese compatriot who had a good service game and was always in attack mode. Nonetheless, Manika Batra has started the 2023 season on a positive note entering the semi-finals of her first WTT Contender event.

Sathiyan and Manika had good chances of qualifying for the finals but lost in the semi-finals to the South Korean pair Shin Yubin and Lim Jonghoon.

There is a WTT Feeder series coming up in the next week and there are few Indians taking part in the tournament.