India's Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee overcame higher-ranked opponents to move into the last 16 stage of the WTT Star Contender in Goa. The biggest upset of the day at the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium was however affected by 20-year-old Korean youngster Cho Daeseong, who ousted Chinese world number one in men's singles Fan Zhendong.
The day, as far as hosts India were concerned, belonged to Manika and Sutirtha. Manika, defeated world number 14 Adriana Diaz 3-1 (11-9, 11-8, 5-11, 11-8). Sutirtha, currently ranked 146, had got the better of Jia Nan Yuan (world ranking #18) of France 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-7).
Manika will be up against China's Qian Tianyi in the next round. She had defeated Qian last year in a tournament in Qatar. Sutirtha will face yet another veteran Fu Yu of Portugal.
Manika Batra staying strong on home soil here at #WTTStarContender Goa! ��
She moves through to the #WTTGoa Women's Singles Round of 16 - catch her in action LIVE tomorrow from 11am (GMT +5:30) at https://t.co/B4RNb4eZH4 or https://t.co/WzpUvKSPUN! �� pic.twitter.com/pArvDJ4E7R
- World Table Tennis (@WTTGlobal) March 2, 2023
"I am really happy that I won today against Adriana Diaz. Let's see what happens in the next round. I have played her before and will have some strategies against her. I'll just give my best and I will just play my best game tomorrow for my country and for myself," Manika said.
Sutirtha, whose impeccable timing and power on the forehand have been her strength in tournament, also shared her thoughts. "I feel absolutely great since I managed to beat a top 20 player. Tomorrow I'll be playing against Yu Fu and I am hoping that I will win against her as well. I had faced Yuan previously also and had conceded the match with a close margin. This time I didn't think much about the rankings and I just went with a mindset to play freely and that led me to this victory."
The biggest shock of day four came in the men's singles when Cho came back from two games down to beat Fan 3-2 (7-11, 6-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-8) to move to the round of 16.
The second and third seeds in the men's singles, Japanese teenager Tomokazu Harimoto and Sweden's Truls Moregard also made it to the last 16 with wins over Liang Yanning of China and Joao Geraldo of Portugal, respectively.
While Manika won her singles match, she suffered defeat in the mixed doubles quarterfinal tie. Manika and G Sathiyan lost to Miwa Harimoto and Shunsuke Togami of Japan in three straight games -- 12-10, 11-6, 11-6.