WTT Star Contender 2023: Harmeet-Manav, Ayhika-Sutirtha register losses in men, women doubles competition

Bangkok [Thailand], April 27 : Indian pair Manav Vikash Thakkar-Harmeet Desai and Ayhika Mukherjee-Sutirtha Mukherjee lost their matches in the Men's doubles and Women's doubles round of 16 respectively in the World Table Tennis (WTT) star contender 2023 on Wednesday.

The South Korean duo Jang Woojin-Lim Jonghoon defeated Indian Men's shuttlers by 3-0 (11-9, 11-7, 11-9) in just around 19 minutes of the game.

On the other hand, Ayhika/Sutirtha gave a tough fight to the Luxembourg shuttlers Sarah de Nutte and Xia Lian Ni, but lost their match by 2-3 in around 34 minutes.

Losing the first game, Indian shuttlers made a comeback winning the second and third games. But the last two games were won by Luxembourg's shuttlers. The win margin was (3-11, 11-4, 11-4, 9-11, 5-11)

Earlier, Ace Indian paddler Sathiyan Gnanasekaran crashed out of the ongoing WTT Star Contender 2023 event being held in Bangkok after a loss in the round of 32 match.

Gnanasekaran lost to China's Liang Jingkun 0-3 (7-11, 7-11, 8-11).

Payas Jain and Manav Thakkar, however, could not progress beyond the qualification round.

Payas bowed out of the competition in the qualification round three after a 0-3 loss to Japan's Satoshi Aida (5-11, 5-11, 13-11). He had earlier notched a 3-2 win over Alberto Mino of Ecuador (11-8, 11-7, 5-11, 8-11, 11-8) and Rares Sipos of Roma by a walkover in earlier qualification rounds.

In the women's singles competition, Mka Batra advanced to the round of 32 by defeating Suh Hyowon of South Korea 3-0 (11-3, 11-6, 12-10).

Sutirtha Mukherjee, Archana Girish Kamath, Yashaswini Ghorpade, Sreeja Akula, Diya Parag, Ayhika Mukherjee suffered defeat in the competition.

Sutirtha crashed out of the competition after 1-3 loss to Korea's Lee Zion (6-11, 11-6, 8-11, 9-11). She had wins over Singapore's Wong Xin Ru, China's Wu Yangchen and Supamas Pankhaoyo of Thailand in qualification rounds.

Archana crashed out of the tournament in the qualification round two after 1-3 loss to Taiwan's Li Yu-Jhun (12-10, 9-11, 11-4, 11-4).

Sreeja also failed to impress, losing her qualification round 2 match to Taiwan's Huang Yu-Wen 1-3 (12-14, 11-3, 8-11, 9-11) after a 3-0 win over Charlotte Carey of Wales in the qualification round one match (11-8, 11-7, 11-6).

Yashaswini also was eliminated from the tournament after a loss to Thailand's Wonglakhon Phatsaraphon in her qualification round two match.

Diya Parag and Ayhika Mukherjee crashed out from the tournament in the qualification round one itself.

In the mixed doubles competition, the duo of Gnanasekaran and Mka Batra lost 2-3 (11-6, 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6) to Shunsuke Togami and Miwa Harimoto in the quarterfinal. They had reached quarters after a win over Thailand's Padasak Tanviriyavechakul and Tamolwan Khetkhuan by 3-1 (5-11, 12-10, 5-11, 9-11) in their round of 16 match.

The mixed doubles duo of Manav Thakkar and Archana Girish Kamath crashed out in the qualification round two after 2-3 (11-5, 10-12, 12-10, 7-11, 5-11) loss to British duo of Tin-Tin Ho and Samuel Walker .

The WTT Star Contender started on April 23 and will go on till April 29.