Asian Games 2023: Sutirtha & Ayikha Mukherjee End Fairy-Tale Run With Historic Bronze in Women's Doubles Table Tennis Event

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Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee end their fairty tale women's doubles run at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou with a historic bronze medal after a defeat to North Korean pair Cha Su-yong & Pak Sug-yong in the semifinals on Monday (October 2).

The Mukherjees went down fighting in a seven-game contest by 3-4 (7-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-5, 2-11) to the unseeded North Korean pair in 50 minutes at the Gongshu Canal Sports Park Gymnasium on Table 1.

The Indian duo took the game close by bouncing back with every game dropped, but in the decider, the North Korean pair were too good to handle and sealed their gold medal meeting with South Korea's Jeon Jihee and Shin Yubin, who beat Japanese pair in the first semiifinal.

Earlier, the Indian pair had secured a shock result to seal their semifinal berth, beatin World No. 2 China's Meng Chen and Yidi Wang to assure a bronze medal in the women's doubles event of the Table Tennis.

The Indian women's pair triumphed by 3-1 (11-5, 11-5, 5-11, 11-9) in the TT doubles quarter-finals, which assured themselves and the country the solitary medal in table tennis at the Asian Games 2023.

The rest of the table tennis contingent had a dissapointing outing as the men's team lost in the quarterfinal, while the women's team lost in the round of 16.

In singles, only Manika Batra reached till the quarterfinal round as Sharath Kamal and G Sathiyan Gnanasekaran exited in the round of 16, while Sreeja Akula bowed out in the round of 32.

In doubles, the women's pair of Sutirtha and Ayikha won bronze, but the rest of the doubles teams all disappointed. Diya Chitale and Akula bowed out in the round of 16.

In men's doubles, Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah reached the quarterfinals, but senior doubles pair of Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan fell in the round of 16. In mixed doubles, Batra and Sathiyan as well as Akula and Harmeet Desai also made an exit in the round of 16.

This is also only the third medal in table tennis at Asian Games with the previous two also being bronze medals in 2018 Jakarta Games won by the Indian men's team and the mixed doubles pair of Kamal and Batra.

Sutirtha and Ayikha's bronze, the first women's doubles medal in table tennis, took India's medal tally to 56 (13 gold, 21 silver and 22 bronze) in the ongoing Asian Games, which pushes India closer to the best-ever haul of 70 with many more events to go.