Table tennis WTT Star Contender: Sreeja, Archana beat higher-ranked players in second round

Indian table tennis players Sreeja Akula, ranked 143 in the world, and Archana Girish Kamath, ranked 132 in the world, produced dramatic upsets when they beat higher-ranked players in the second round of the WTT Star Contender table tennis tournament in Doha on Thursday.

While Sreeja beat World No. 23 Suh Hyowon of Korea 3-1 (11-5, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7), Archana got the better of World No. 39 Mo Zhang of Korea 3-0 (11-8, 15-13, 11-7) in progress to the round-of-16.

Sreeja Akula will face Brazil's Bruna Takahashi while Archana Kamath will play Japan's Miyu Nagasaki later on Thursday.

Sreeja was clinical from the word go and wrapped up the first game in no time with a 11-5 scoreline.

Although Hyowon restored parity in the second game, taking it by an 11-7 scoreline, it was the only time the Korean had the upper hand in the contest.

The Indian table tennis player then upped the ante and the Korean had no answers to Sreeja's variety and was eventually ousted from the WTT Contender tournament.

Top-class table tennis dished out

Later, Archana Kamath produced another scintillating display to give her Canadian opponent no room for any comeback.

After wrapping up the first game at 11-8, Archana Kamath was stretched to the hilt by Zhang but the Indian eventually prevailed 15-13 in a tense second game.

The second game seemed to have drained her opponent out as Archana took the lead and comfortably closed the third game 11-7 to win the match.

The two women's singles table tennis players are the only Indian representatives at the ongoing WTT Star Contender with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, India's second-best table tennis player in the men's category, bowing out earlier in the day.

The Indian doubles and mixed doubles pairs also endured a horrid outing as they were unable to get past the first round.

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