Manika-Sathiyan reach quarterfinal of mixed doubles competition

SINGAPORE: Indian mixed doubles pair of Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran advanced to the quarterfinals of the ongoing Singapore Smash 2023 on Monday.

They defeated the local duo of Chew Zhe Yu Clarence and Jian Zeng to advance to the final eight stage.

The Indian pair got a bye in first round and won the match by 3-1 (11-7, 12-10, 9-11, 11-3) in fhe round of 16 phase which lasted for 31 minutes.

Manika and Sathiyan dominated the match right from start and took the first game 11-7. But the local team showed up fight in the second game, but the Indian pair carried with the momentum from first game to win by 12-10.

Chew and Jiang continued to fight their way back into the match. They bagged four consecutive points to win the third game by 12-9 and make the scoreline read 2-1.

After a setback, Sathiyan and Manika continued their domination and won the last game by 11-3 to win the match 3-1.

Manika and Sathiyan will be facing world championships silver medalists, Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata in their quarterfinal match.
Manika Batra will team up with Archana Kamath in women's doubles competition on Tuesday to face Chinese duo of Meng Chen and Yidi Wang in the round of 16.

Earlier, Manika Batra, G Sathiyan and Sharath Kamal lost their respective matches to end the Indian singles campaign in the event.
In men's doubles competition, the pair of Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar was ousted in the round of 32.