Indian table tennis pair of Manika Batra and Sathiyan Ganasekaran have won the mixed doubles title at the WTT Contender event in Budapest on Friday.
Manika and Sathiya are the first table tennis players from India to win a WTT Contender title. They defeated top seeds Nandor Ecseki and Dora Madarasz of Hungary 11-9, 9-11, 12-10 and 11-6.
“It was great. We didn’t expect it to be this good! We just had a day to practice. My quickness on the table and Manika’s intelligent play and her much-improved forehand enabled us to win the tournament,” said Sathiyan.
According to Sathiyan, beating the World No.7 and the top-seeded duo of Lubomir Pistej and Barbora Balazova of Slovakia in the quarterfinals was a morale-booster. “We will next play in the WTT Doha event and the Asian TT championships,” he said.
This was the first time that Manika and Sathiyan paired together since winning the bronze medal in the mixed doubles event of the 2018 Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast in Australia.