WTT Contender Tunis 2021: Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai enter men's doubles final after inspiring comeback

Indian table tennis men’s doubles pair G Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai entered the WTT Contender Tunis 2021 final. They beat Nando Ecseki and Adam Szudi 3-2 on Friday.

Sathiyan and Harmeet made a brilliant comeback to register a victory and confirm a medal for India. The pair came from behind and got the better of the Hungarian pair 8-11, 12-14, 11-9, 11-8, 11-9 in the semi-final clash.

The Indian duo will face Alexandra Cassin and Emmanual Lebesson of France in the finals on Saturday.

Sathiyan lose men’s singles quarterfinal clash at the WTT Contender

While it was a good showing in the men’s doubles fixture for Sathiyan, he lost his men’s singles match. He suffered a straight 3-0 loss against Germany's Dang Qiu.

He also lost the mixed doubles semi-final clash. Sathiya and Manika Batra took on the French combination of Emmanual Lebesson and Jia Nan Yuan in a closely fought last four clash.

Sathiyan and Manika cruised to a two game lead but lost momentum conceding the match 11-7 11-9 6-11 9-11 9-11.

Meanwhile, India’s veteran paddler Sharath Kamal had a disappointing outing in Tunis. He bowed out in the opening round against Brazil’s Vitor Ishiy 3-2.

Other men’s singles players Manav Thakkar, Snehit Suravajjula, Mudit Dani and Harmeet Desai failed to qualify for the main draws.

Indian women paddlers also disappointed at the WTT Contender competition.

Country’s top-ranked player Manika Batra exited in her opening match against Germany’s Nina Mittelham 3-1.

Selena Selvakumar was also knocked out in round of 32. She lost against Dina Meshref of Egypt.

Madhurika Patkar and Ananya Basak received a bye in their first round of qualification. However, both of them failed to qualify for the main draws.

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While Madhurika lost to Christina Kallberg of Sweden 3-1 in round 3, Ananya was knocked out in the second round.