Table Tennis: Manika-Sathiyan lift mixed doubles title in Budapest, make winning return after Tokyo debacle

Budapest, Aug 20: India's star paddlers G Sathiyan and Manika Batra made a winning return as they won the mixed doubles title at the WTT Contender here on Friday (August 20). It was the first campaign for the Indian table tennis stars after the Tokyo Olympics and they started on a dominant note.

The Indian duo, who had last played together in the 2018 Commonwealth Games, outplayed Hungary's Dora Madarasz and Nandor Ecseki 3-1 to claim the title in the mixed doubles category.

They beat the 94th-ranked Hungarian pairing 11-9, 9-11, 12-10, 11-6. It was a memorable win for Manika and Sathiyan and plan to take their partnership to the Paris Olympics in 2024.

Manika had won the Asian Games bronze with veteran Sharath Kamal and, more recently, they played together at the Tokyo Olympics. Sathiyan said it was a tricky final but their toughest challenge came in the quarterfinals when they upset the world number seven duo from Slovakia -- Barbara Balazova and Lubomir Pistej -- in the quarterfinals.

"It is great that we were able to win the event with very little practice. It certainly shows what we can achieve as a pair. We were quite tactically and seem to complement each other's game.

"Manika had me approached for the partnership a while. We both thought it was the best time to give it a shot. She is our best-ever female player and we have shown the potential that our partnership has. The more we play the better we get," Sathiyan told PTI.

Sathiyan will play in the Czech Open later this week while Manika will head back home. Another big event coming up is the Asian Championships in September-October. Manika, ranked 60th in singles, had done well to reach the semifinals here.

Another impressive performance came from 150th-ranked Indian Sreeja Akula, whom Manika defeated in the quarterfinals. It was also a welcome result for Sathiyan following his opening-round loss in the singles competition of the Tokyo Olympics.

(With PTI inputs)