Young and promising Indian paddler Manav Thakkar pulled off a memorable 3-1 victory over world No 33 Kao Cheng-Jui to enter the men's singles pre-quarterfinals of the Asian Table Tennis Championships in Pyeongchang, South Korea on Friday.
The 23-year-old completed an 11-8, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7 victory over the South Korean in a round of 32 contest.
Thakkar, ranked 100, will next face arguably the greatest player of all time, Ma Long from China, in the round of 16.
On a day when the seasoned G Sathiyan and Sharath Kamal lost their round of 32 matches, another heartening performance came from the 170th-ranked Ayhika Mukherjee, who stretched the Olympic bronze medallist Chen Xingtong of China to five games, before going down in the women's singles round of 32.
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Ayhika was on course for the biggest win of her career after taking a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five affair. However, the world No 4 fought back to take the next three games with the final scoreline reading 2-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-3 in favour of the Chinese.
In the men's doubles quarterfinals, Thakkar and Manush Shah lost to the formidable Chinese duo of Fan Zhendong and Lin Gaoyuan 5-11, 3-11, 5-11.
The women's doubles pairing of Ayhika and Sutirtha Mukherjee suffered a similar fate against the mighty Chinese pairing of Wang Manyu and Chen Meng, losing 5-11, 11-13, 10-12 in the last-eight stage.
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The Indian men had won a bronze in the preceding team events.
(With PTI inputs)
