India’s Manav Thakkar went down to third-seeded Ma Long of China 9-11, 10-12, 5-11 in the men’s pre-quarterfinals of the 26th-ITTF Asian table tennis championships in Pyeongchang (South Korea) on Friday.
With Manav’s exit, India’s presence in the continental championships came to an end. In the third round, Manav had upset Kao Cheng-Jui, World No.33.
Earlier in the day, Sharath Kamal and G. Sathiyan lost in the men’s singles third round. Then, the women’s doubles pair of Sutirtha Mukherjee & Ayhika Mukherjee bowed out in the quarterfinals.
The results (third round):
Men singles: (pre-quarterfinals): Ma Long bt Manav Thakkar 11-9, 12-10, 11-5; (third round): Manav Thakkar bt Kao Cheng-Jui (Tpe) 11-8, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7; Jaehyun An (Kor) bt G. Sathiyan 9-11, 11-9, 11-5, 9-11, 13-11; Yuta Tanaka (Jpn) bt Sharath Kamal 11-8, 11-8, 11-7.
Women: singles: (third round): Orawan Paranang (Tha) bt Sutirtha Mukherjee 11-9, 11-6, 11-4; Xington Chen (Chn) bt Ayhika Mukherjee 2-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-3; doubles (Quarterfinals): Manyu Wang & Meng Chen (Chn) bt Sutirtha Mukherjee & Ayhika Mukherjee 11-5, 13-11, 12-10.