Sharath Kamal storms into quarters of men’s and mixed doubles at the Hungarian Open

What’s the story?

Sharath Kamal, the Indian table tennis sensation took the ITTF World Tour Hungarian open by storm when he entered the quarter-finals of both men’s doubles and mixed doubles, in Budapest.

In case you did not know

Sharath Kamal had won a gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. He had also clinched three medals in the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.

The heart of the matter

Kamal, who is still the top Indian table tennis player, paired with Manika Batra to a triumphant 11-8, 9-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-7 victory over Hungarian players Adam Szudi and Szandra Pergel.

Kamal and Batra had together won the bronze medal at the Asian Games in 2018. The Hungarian duo, supported by home fans were leading by 2-1 sets, but that did not demoralise the Indians, who showed tremendous courage and resolve to bounce back and win the remaining two sets.

After sometime, Kamal together with Gnanasekaran Sathiyan recorded yet another 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 9-11, 11-9 win against Japan’s Shunsuke Togami and Yukiya Uda, in the men’s doubles.

Whats next?

The Kamal-Batra duo are all set to compete against Japan's Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito in their pursuit of a semi-final place. The Indians need to continue playing with grit and determination to be able to register a win against the mighty duo.

On the other hand, Kamal and Sathiyan are next going to play against Hungary’s Szudi and Nandor Ecsekti, who are ranked at 132 and 142 in the world rankings, respectively.

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