WTT Star Contender Bangkok 2023: How did the Indian contingent fare at the marquee tournament?

The recently concluded World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender Bangkok 2023 was a six-day affair held at the Huamark Indoor Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, from April 23 to 29. It was one of the six Star Contenders organized by the WTT under the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

The Indian contingent was cheered on by fans from back home courtesy of the Cadbury Dairy Milk’s #CheerForAllSports initiative, where they helped the Indians cheer for their favorite paddlers via a fan wall at the stadium. It was an innovative idea that must have boosted the Indians’ confidence and given them a sense of home advantage despite playing at Bangkok.

China dominated the Star Contender Bangkok 2023 by clinching all the five titles of the event. Lin Gaoyuan emerged as the winner of the men’s singles final after defeating South Korea’s Jang Woojin 4-3 on aggregate in the final.

India had ample representation at the WTT Star Contender Bangkok 2023. A total of 12 paddlers turned up for the event but only Men’s World No.51 G Sathiyan and Women’s 40th seeded Manika Batra earned spots in the main draws in the men and women’s singles respectively.

Manika and Sathiyan won their respective round-of-64 in the singles category against Suh Hyo Won and Vitor Ishy respectively. The top-seeded Indians in the event suffered defeats in their next round. Both Manika and Sathiyan paired in the mixed doubles event and outplayed the home team pair of Padasak Tanviriyavechakul and Tamolwan Khetkhuan in a 3-1 win.

The mixed doubles pair, however, failed to progress in the star contender as they were defeated by Shunsuke Togami and Miwa Harimoto of Japan in a hard-fought quarter-final. The Indians lost the first two sets but displayed resilience to bounce back with 11-9 margin in both third and fourth sets and level the game 2-2.

The Japanese paddlers held their nerves to seal the game 11-6 in the decisive set. The qualification of the mixed doubles team to the quarter-final was the biggest marker from India’s point of view in the event.

How did other Indian paddlers performed in WTT Star Contender Bangkok 2023?

West Bengal’s Sutirtha Mukherjee was involved in the most matches (7) among the Indian contingent. She won all three qualifying rounds of women’s singles with convincing victories before going down to South Korean Lee Zion in the Round of 64.

Sutirtha and Ayhika Mukherjee won both their qualifying games after getting the better of Singapore (3-1) and Japan (3-2). However, the duo couldn’t get past Luxembourg’s Sarah de Nutte and Xia Lian NI in the Round of 16.

Senior women’s national champion Sreeja Akula competed in the women’s singles and doubles event in Bangkok. The paddler from Telangana blanked Welsh player Charlotte Carey 3-0 in the qualifying round 1 before going down to the Chinese Taipei’s Huang Yu-Wen 1-3 in the following round. It was a similar story for Sreeja in the Women’s doubles, where she paired with youngster Diya Chitale. They won the first qualifying round and lost the second one.

Manav Thakkar played six games in three different events. He won his first two qualifying rounds in the men’s singles and later was knocked out by Peng Wang-Wei in the final qualifying round.

Manav was paired with Karnataka’s Archana Kamath in the mixed doubles event. However, their journey lasted only till the second qualifying round. Manav earned a direct qualification in the men’s doubles’ main draw along with Surat’s Harmeet Desai. They were blanked 0-3 by the South Korean duo of Jang Woojin and Lim Jonghoon in the round of 16.

Harmeet, who was part of India’s Commonwealth Games gold defending team last year in Birmingham, failed to get the better of Lubomir Jancarik in the first qualifying round of men’s singles.

Cadbury Dairy Milk has collaborated with various federations around the world to have fan walls at sporting events. And this has certainly been one of the most innovative initiatives undertaken recently. This will not only be beneficial for the players as they receive home support but also for the fans, who can #CheerForAllSports! You can register for the initiative here.