World TT C’ships: Women’s and mixed doubles pairs in last-8

Manika and Archana Kamath defeated Hungary’s Dora Madarasz and Georgina Pota 11-4, 11-9, 6-11, 11-7 in the women’s doubles Round-of-16 on Friday. They will face Luxembourg’s Sarah de Nutte and Xia Lian Ni for a place in the last-four. Bronze medals will be awarded to the losing semi-finalists in the competition.

In mixed doubles, Manika and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran scripted a valiant comeback against the Chinese combine of Kanak Jha and Wang Manyu after losing the first two games. The Indian pair won by a scoreline of 15-17, 10-12, 12-10, 11-6, 11-7. The Manika-Sathiyan duo will meet Japan’s Hayata Hina and Harimoto Tomokazu in the quarter-finals. “It was a superb comeback against a strong pair. We combined extremely well. We are looking forward to keep up the momentum. It is going to be tough against the top Japanese pair, but we will give everything,” Sathiyan told PTI.

However, the mixed doubles combination of Sharath Kamal Achanta and Archana lost their Round-of-16 match 4-11, 8-11, 5-11 to the French duo of Jia Nan Yuan and Emmanuel Lebesson.