Budapest, Feb 21 (IANS) Indian pairs of A. Sharath Kamal and G. Sathiyan in men’s doubles and Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra in mixed doubles assured themselves of a medal each as they entered the semifinals of the ITTF World Tour Hungary Open here on Friday.
Sharath and Sathiyan defeated home favourites Nandor Ecseki and Adam Szudi 11-8, 11-7, 11-8 in the quarterfinal after having sent the Japanese pair of Shunsuke Togami and Yukia Uda packing 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 9-11, 11-9 in the previous round.
In the semifinal to be played later in the evening, the men’s doubles pair will take on top seeds Kit Kwan Ho and Ting Chun Wong from Hong Kong.
As for Sharath and Manika, they got a walkover in the quarterfinal from second-seeded Japanese pair of Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito after Mizutani pulled out because of a neck injury he suffered during his singles match.
The Indians are slated to meet German duo of Patrick Franziska and Petrissa Solja later in the evening.
Earlier, Sathiyan and Manika entered the men’s and women’s singles pre-quarterfinals. Sathiyan will take on Japanese top seed Harimoto Tomokazu while Manika will clash with Miu Hirano, also from Japan, in the round of 16 later in the evening.
Sathiyan beat Noshad Alamiyan of Iran 4-1 while Manika pipped Szu-Yu Chen of Taipei 4-3 in a tough round of 32 match. Manika was down 0-3 before taking the last four games, including the crucial fourth game on extended points to win 9-11, 4-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-7, 14-12.
–IANS
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