Doha, May 17 (PTI) India number one Sreeja Akula crashed out in the first round but the Mukherjee sisters — Ayhika and Sutirtha — and the duo of Diya Chitale and Yashaswini Ghodpade won their respective women’s doubles opening matches in the table tennis World Championships here on Saturday.
The Indian pair of Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah too tasted success in their first round men’s doubles match in the premier tournament.
An error-prone Akula lost to Thailand’s Suthasini Sawettabut 1-4 (11-9 8-11 6-11 5-11 2-11) rather tamely.
It was a disappointing outing for the Indian as she made an early exit after losing to the world number 84. Sreeja won the opening game, but after that, lost her momentum, dropping innumerable points and making unforced errors to go down in just 33 minutes.
The Indian contingent though had moments to cheer as Asian Games medallists Ayhika and Sutirtha beat the Turkish pair of Ozge Yilmaz and Ece Harac 3-2 (4-11 11-9 10-12 11-9 11-7) following a five-game thriller.
The result meant that the Indian pair ended a six-match losing streak while progressing to the next round of the ITTF World Championships.
The second Indian women’s doubles pair of Diya and Yashaswini too progressed to the second round of the competition with a win against Uzbekistan pair of Magdieva and Erkebaeva 3-1 (9-11 11-2 11-9 11-8).
They started off on the wrong note and lost the opening game by a close margin but bounced back to win the next three games and confirm their place in second round.
The Indian duo of Thakkar and Shah then continued their good form this season with a straight-game win over the Slovenian duo of Deni Kozul and Peter Hribar. They won 3-0 (11-7 11-8 11-6). PTI AH AH PDS PDS
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