TT Worlds: Sreeja ousted, other Indians advance
Also getting off the blocks in singles were young Manush Shah and Diya Chitale with contrasting opening-round victories at the Qatar University.
World No.34 Sreeja took the first game but then surrendered to a 4-1 (11-9, 8-11, 6-11, 5-11, 2-11) defeat to Thailand's Suthasini Sawettabut, ranked 84 in the ITTF charts.
It marks another disappointing result this year for the 26-year-old from Hyderabad, who had displaced Manika Batra as India No.1 last year. Sreeja had a fine 2024 season in which she won a WTT Contender title, made the singles Round of 16 at the Paris Olympics and surged to a career-best ranking of No.21 after her debut Olympics campaign. Since the last few months, however, she has struggled for form and peak fitness.
In doubles, the top Indian men's pair of Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah, seeded eighth, had a straightforward opening victory. They got past the Slovenian combine of Peter Hribar and Deni Kozul 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-6).
It wasn't as straightforward for Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee. The Hangzhou Asian Games bronze medallists, seeded 14th in the women's doubles draw, were two games to one down but rallied to beat Turkey's Ozge Yilmaz and Ece Harac 3-2 (4-11, 11-9, 10-12, 11-9, 11-7). Diya and Yashaswini Ghorpade, seeded 12th, defeated the Uzbek pair Markhabo Magdieva and Asel Erkebaeva 3-1 (9-11, 11-2, 11-9, 11-8).
Manush and Diya, who will also feature in the mixed doubles draw as ninth seeds and will open their campaign on Sunday, came back to win their respective singles opening rounds.
Manush had a topsy-turvy ride in going past Portugal's Tiago Apolonia 4-2 (11-6, 2-11, 11-7, 11-6, 5-11, 11-6), while Diya defeated Spain's Sofia-Xuan Zhang 4-0 (11-4, 11-7, 11-3, 14-12).
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