WTT China Smash: Manav, Manush advance to quarters

FILE PHOTO: Indian mixed doubles pair of Manush Shah (left) and Diya Chitale (right) registered a straight-games win in the China Smash quarterfinals in Beijing on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: R Ravindran

Asian Games bronze medallists Manush Shah and Diya Chitale booked their place in the mixed doubles semifinals of the WTT China Smash in Beijing on Wednesday.

The fifth-seeded duo followed its 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-4) victory over Egyptians Youssef Abdelaziz and Mariam Alhodaby with another clean sweep as it took down Romania’s Eduard Ionescu and Bernadette Szocs 3-0 (11-9, 13-11, 11-3), becoming the first-ever Indian mixed doubles pair to reach the last-four stage at a Grand Smash event.

In the semifinals on Thursday, Manush and Diya will be up against Lin Yun-ju and Cheng I-ching, the seventh seeds from Chinese Taipei.

Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah were up for the challenge!💪😤 The No.2 Seeds showed plenty of grit in a tough 3-2 battle against Chen Junsong and Zhou Qihao! Hear what they had to say about the battle! 🎙 #ChinaSmash #TableTennis https://t.co/Ah1rpIEOV6

Manush also reached the men’s doubles quarterfinals with Manav Thakkar after the second-seeded pair registered a hard-fought 3-2 (11-5, 11-6, 2-11, 7-11, 12-10) over local duo of Chen Junsong and Zhou Qihao. The Indians will face another Chinese team in wild cards Liang Jingkun and Xiang Peng for a place in the semifinals.

READ | ₹25 crore. 10 athletes. 1 medal: The story of Indian table tennis at Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games

Manav’s campaign in singles, however, ended with a 0-3 (7-11, 6-11, 5-11) loss to seventh-seeded Frenchman Alexis Lebrun in the round of 32.

In women’s doubles, Diya and Yashaswini Ghorpade went down 2-3 (12-10, 4-11, 7-11, 11-8, 8-11) to local wild cards Gao Yuxin and Xiang Junlin in the round of 16.