Budapest: Indian men’s doubles pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Gnanasekaran Sathiyan settled for a silver medal at the ITTF World Tour Hungarian Open after losing the summit clash to German combination of Benedikt Duda and Patrick Franziska, here.
The Indian pair, which defeated top seeds Ho Kwan Kit and Wong Chun Ting of Hong Kong 3-2 in the semi-finals, put up a strong effort in the summit clash but eventually went down fighting 5-11, 9-11, 11-8, 9-11 to the 16th seeds German pair in a 30-minute showdown on Saturday.
It is Sharath Kamal’s second medal from the prestigious tournament. He also won a bronze with Manika Batra in mixed doubles.
It turned out to be a super Saturday for India as Chennai’s Mathan Rajan Hansini bagged a bronze medal in the mini-cadet girls’ singles category at the Swedish Junior and Cadet Open in Orebro, Sweden.
The 10-year-old Class V student started her main draw challenge after a couple of wins in the group stages before going down to Russia’s Iuliia Pugovkina 12-10, 9-11, 5-11, 8-11 in a gruelling semi-final match.
In the main draw, she beat Russia’s Aleksandra Bokova 12-10, 9-11, 9-11, 3-11 in the round of 16 and notched up a commanding 11-3, 12-10, 11-9 win over Isha Bajpai of the USA in the quarter-finals.
In the cadet girls’ singles section, another Indian talent, Suhana Saini reached the pre-quarterfinals, while Suresh Raj Preyesh too made it to the pre-quarters in cadet boys’ singles section.
PTI
