World Table Tennis Championships: Sathiyan-Manika advances to round of 32; Sreeja Akula enter second round

India pair of Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran advanced to the Mixed Doubles round of 32 at the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals after notching a tense 3-2 victory over Xia Lian Ni and Luka Mladenovic of Luxembourg here on Saturday. The fourth-seeded Indian pair won 9-11, 11-8, 14-16, 11-7, 11-6 against their Luxembourg opponents who are ranked 122 positions below them in the world rankings. Read More: Italian Open: Elena Rybakina lifts title as Anhelina Kalinina retires, sets sights on Roland Garros Batra later with her women’s doubles partner Archana Kamath defeated USA’s Emily Quan and Yishiuan Lin 3-1 (10-12, 11-2, 11-9, 11-5). Sreeja Akula defeated higher-ranked paddler Nicole Arlia of Italy 11-6, 11-9, 9-11, 11-4, 11-5 in the women’s singles first round. Manush Shah and Sutirtha Mukherjee lost their singles matches. With inputs from PTI Read all the Latest News, Trending News,  Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.