Asian Games: Diya Chitale, Manush Shah storm into blended doubles semifinals, guarantee desk tennis medal

NEW DELHI: India’s Manush Shah and Diya Chitale secured a medal within the blended doubles occasion on the Asian Games after pulling off an enormous win over Hong Kong’s Wong Chun-Ting and Doo Hoi Kem within the quarterfinals on Friday.The Indian pair beat the global community No. 4 mixture 3-1 (11-6, 13-15, 11-9, 11-5) to enter the semifinals and guarantee India of a desk tennis medal.Manush and Diya will now face China’s global community No. 2 pair Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha within the semifinals afterward Friday. A win would take the Indians into the ultimate of an Asian Games desk tennis occasion for the primary time.The medal is India’s second in blended doubles on the Asian Games. Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra had received bronze in Jakarta in 2018. It can be solely India’s fourth desk tennis medal within the historical past of the Asian Games.

Strong end seals the win

Manush and Diya made a superb begin, taking the opening sport 11-6. The Hong Kong pair fought again within the second sport, however the Indians stayed within the contest earlier than narrowly dropping it 13-15.With the match stage at 1-1, the Indian duo raised their sport and took the third sport 11-9. That put them only one sport away from a assured medal.They accomplished the job in fashion, racing to an 11-5 win within the fourth sport to seal their place within the final 4.

India’s fourth desk tennis medal

India have now received 4 desk tennis medals on the Asian Games, with all 4 being bronze.Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra received the blended doubles bronze at Jakarta 2018. The males’s group additionally claimed bronze on the similar Games, with Harmeet Desai, G Sathiyan and Manav Thakkar a part of that squad.At Hangzhou 2023, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee added one other bronze in girls’s doubles.