Manush-Manav settle for silver in men’s doubles in Doha

Gandhidham 20, October: Gujarat’s dynamic duo of Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah did the nation proud when they settled for silver in men’s doubles event of the recently concluded WTT Feeder Doha 2023 table tennis tournament.

The Gujarat paring was seeded two in the prestigious tournament and dispatched the 15th seeds Ahmed Saadawi and Raif Rustemovski 3-0 in the round of 16 and cleaned up sixth seeded Taiwanese pairing of Chen Chien-An and Huang Yan-Cheng in 3-1 (11-7, 11-8, 7-11, 11-7) in the quarterfinal.

India’s right-left handed combo of Manush and Manav proved too strong for Hong Kong’s third seed pair of Li Hon Ming and Ho Kwan Kit as they crushed them 3-1 (10-12, 11-3, 11-7, 11-8) to progress in the final.

However, the Gujarat boys lost the steam in the summit clash as they went down fighting to the top-seeded pair of Cedric Nuytinck and Jakub Dyjas in three straight yet tough games (8-11, 9-11, 10-12) to settle for the silver medal.

Surat-boy Manav came up with a special performance in the men’s singles event as the 23-year-old defeated his doubles partner Manush 3-2 (6-11, 11-6, 11-8, 10-12, 11-8) in a close round of 32 battle. The world no. 81 Manav then went on topple another compatriot and his childhood idol A Sharath Kamal 3-2 (9-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-4, 11-4), in round of 16.

Manav’s winning run came to an end after he surrendered meekly to Poland’s world no. 146 Dyjas 1-3 (6-11, 11-9, 3-11, 10-12) in the quarterfinals.