The young Indian paddler Swastika Ghosh was the lone shining star for India on what was a disappointing day at the WTT Contender Muscat in Muscat, Oman on Thursday.
Swastika is the only player who is still active in the tournament as she won her round-of-16 match against a much higher-ranked Elizabeta Samara of Romania in straight games, 11-8, 11-7, 11-9.
She will now take on the third-seeded Xunyao Shi of China in the quarterfinal tomorrow. The 23-year-old Chinese booked her place in the quarterfinals after knocking out another Indian paddler Diya Chitale in straight games.
On the other hand, the experienced paddler Ayhika Mukherjee has also exited the tournament in the round of 16, losing in four games (11-13, 11-6, 12-14, 4-11) against Kim Nayeong of South Korea.
In men’s singles, Manav Thakkar was the only Indian in the pre-quarterfinals but he also lost his match in a tight five-game (9-11, 12-10, 5-11, 12-10, 5-11) encounter against China’s Fei Xue.
Manush-Diya exit in semifinal
The Indian mixed doubles pairing of Mansuah Shah and Diya Chitale had a great outing at the tournament as they booked their spot in the semifinal after an all-Indian clash against Anirban Ghosh and Ayhika Mukherjee.
However, they could not take this forward and conceded a tight four-game (12-10, 8-11, 10-12, 7-11) match against the second-seeded Hong Kong pair of Doo Kem Hoi and Wong Chun Ting.
India also had a quarterfinal exit in the men’s and women’s doubles categories as both the pairs of Manav-Manush and Sutirtha-Ayhika faced a defeat in their respective matches.
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