WTT Contender Tunis 2023: Ayhika-Sutirtha pair upsets top-seed to enter final

New Delhi: Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee caused the biggest upset of the tournament when they toppled top-seed and World No. 4 pair from Korea, Shin Yubin and Jeon Jihee, in the semifinals of the WTT Contender Tunis 2023 to be a step closer to the yellow metal.

The Indian pair on Saturday night won 7-11, 11-9, 11-9, 7-11, 11-9 in a nervy outing to ensure themselves a silver medal, the Table Tennis Federation of India, said on Sunday

Ayhika and Sutirtha beat Taipei's Chen Szn-Yu and Huang Yi-Hua 10-12, 11-8, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7 in the quarterfinals last night. The No. 36 ranked duo, after losing the first game, started combining well with Ayhika using the odd-rubber to score crucial points in the second and third games to go 2-1 up, with adequate support from the reliable Sutirtha. But the 18-year-old right-handed Yubin and the most experienced left-handed Jihee fought back nicely to restore parity and take the issue to the decider.

The decisive fifth game went neck and neck, with hardly any sizeable lead for either party. Ayhika, who recently won the singles title in the National Ranking tournament at Hyderabad, was in her zone as Sutirtha provided the nudge. Their winning recipe, as the Indian duo put it after the match, was to "keep themselves in the match until the last point." They stopped the Koreans at a crucial time without allowing them the luxury of the deuce.

The Indians run into the second-seeded and World No. 4 Japanese pair of Miyuu Kihara and Miwa Harimoto in the final tomorrow.

The top Indian mixed pair of Manika Batra and Sathiyan lost in the semifinals to Korea's Shin Yubin and Lim Jong Hoon 7-11, 8-11, 9-11 to earn the bronze. The Indians beat the German pair of Cedric Meissner and Yuan Wang 11-8, 11-3, 11-8 in the quarters.

Similarly, the left-right combination of Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar, after their fantastic showing in the quarterfinals last night against the Chinese pair of Peng Xiang and Wei Cao—the Indians won 11-9, 11-7, 3-11, 7-11, 11-2—lost their semifinals to the left-handedpair of Cho Daeseong and Cho Seungmin from Korea 3-11, 10-12, 7-11 to end up their campaign with another bronze for India. (UNI)