WTT Star Contender: Kamal, Sathiyan, Manika Batra in 2nd rd

Doha, March 8 : Ace paddlers Achanta Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, and Manika Batra started their campaign at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender on a winning note and progressed into the second round of singles competition here on Monday.
Melbourne Commonwealth Games champion Kamal struggled in the initial stages of the game as he went down in the first game against Brian Afanador. The world No. 32 recovered well to gain the required momentum and gave no further chance to his opponent before sealing the match 8-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-1 against the Puerto Rican in the men’s singles first round.
The Indian will face world No. 16 Patrick Franziska of Germany in the next round on Tuesday.
World No. 37 Sathiyan was also trailing 0-2 in the match. However, he made a remarkable comeback with a counter attacking display and pulled off a sensational come-from-behind 9-11, 7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-4 victory against his French opponent Emmanuael Lebesson in the first round of men’s singles event.
Sathiyan will now face a tough task in the next round as he is set to take on world No. 5 Japanese paddler Tomokazu Harimoto.
In the women’s singles opening round match, Commonwealth Games gold medallist Manika notched up a comfortable straight-set 11-5, 11-9, 11-9 win against Chinese Taipei’s Hsein-Tzu Cheng to progress into the next round where she will face challenge from World No. 3 Mima Ito of Japan.