photo ITTF
WEB DESK
Prodigious young paddler Manav Vikash Thakkar scored an easy 3-0 victory over Russia’s Lev Katsman to storm into the semi finals of the ITTF Challenge Belgosstrakh Belarus Open in Minsk.
The victory assured the Indian to assure himself a place in the last four and at least a bronze medal.
Earlier he displayed his prowess as he eked out a hard-fought 3-2 win against World No. 8 Yuki Matsuyama of Japan, in the quarterfinals
Before that also Manav scored another remarkable victory as he rolled out his A game and breezed past Japan’s Kohei Sambe 4-2 in the men’s singles category (senior) to progress into the Round of 32 of the prestigious tournament.
In the U-21 roster, Manav started off his campaign with an easy 3-0 (11-6, 11-2, 11-8) win over Russia’s Maksim Grebnev. In the next clash, Israel’s Aviv Ben-Ari put up a staunch fight but capitulated to the Indian as Manav won the game 3-1 (12-10, 9-11, 11-6, 11-7).
It was only in the pre-quarters that Manav lost two games consecutively (9-11, 3-11) to the World No. 8 of the U-21 category. Japan’s Matsuyama was in cruise control till the Indian launched a vicious comeback to tower over his opponent as he bagged the next three games on the trot (11-7, 11-8, 11-9), to secure a berth in the last eight stage of the tournament.
Buoyant after the big win, Manav didn’t let Russia’s Katsman settle into the game as he breezed past him with easy 11-5, 11-7 and 15-13 wins to progress into the semi-finals.
The open category for men’s singles witnessed Manav in his rampaging form as he defeated Kohe Sambe of Japan in the round of 64.
Manav didn’t have the best of starts as he went down 6-11 in the first game but bounced back to win the next three and capitalized on the lead to bag the tie 4-1.
He will take on World No. 101, Belgium’s Robin Devos, in the round of 32 encounter later tonight.
Except Manav, Harmeet Desai also progressed through to the next round of the senior category with a convincing 4-0 win over Germany’s Dennis Klein whereas Sanil Shetty couldn’t follow suit as his compatriots and bowed out of the tournament rather meekly after a 0-4 loss to Russia’s Denis Ivonin.
Desai will be looking to cross the next hurdle as he takes on Alexey Liventsov of Russia.
In the men’s doubles category, the duo of Harmeet-Sanil couldn’t move past the combination of Oleksandr Didukh of Ukraine and Lubomir Pistej of Slovakia in their opening round of 16 clash as they went down 1-4 to bow out of the tournament.