Asian Games: Sathiyan-Sharath pair breeze past Mongolia 3-0 to reach Round of 16

HANGZHOU: India's ace paddlers Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran defeated Mongolia's Ser-od Gankhuyag and Manlaijargal Munkh-Ochir 11-5, 11-3, 11-3 in the men's doubles event round of 32 at the ongoing 19th Asian Games on Thursday.

An excellent display of attack by Sharath and Sathiyan saw the pair start the match in a rather convincing fashion. The Indian pair played an attacking game from the beginning and took the first game without breaking a sweat.

Sharath and Sathiyan continued to move from strength to strength together and won the second game more comprehensively than the first 11-3.

The Mongolians seemed to have no answers to the Indian paddling contingent. Sharath and Sathyan outclassed their opponents in all three games to register a straight-set victory and advance into the Round of 16.

Meanwhile, Indian men's doubles pair Manush Utpalbhai Patel and Manav Vikash Thakkar also won 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 11-2 in the same round against Maldives' Moosa Munif Ahmed and Mohamed Shaffan Ismail at Hangzhou.

It was the victorious day for the Men's team as both the doubles pairs defeated their respective opponents. Both Indian pairs will contest the round of 16 on Friday. Earlier, in the women's singles round 32 match, Manika Batra defeated Nepal's Nabita Shrestha by 4-0.

The Indian player dominated the game from the very first and won straight four sets. However, Sreeja Akula failed to clinch a win in the women's singles round 32 game and lost against North Korea’s Songgyong Pyon by 0-4. Sreeja lost the match in straight sets. In the round 16 mixed doubles match, the Indians failed to make a mark.

In the first game, Harmeet Desai and Sreeja Akula lost against Thiland's Phakpoom Sanguansin by 3-0. In the other round 16 games of mixed doubles, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra lost to Singapore's Zhe Yu Clarence and Jian Zeng by 3-2.

The Sathiyan-Manika duo dominated the game at the first but failed to keep consistency. They won straight three sets but succumbed in the last two.