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Indian table tennis stars Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran advanced to the semifinals of the men's singles category at the ongoing Commonwealth Games on Saturday.
Kamal advanced to the final four by defeating Quek Izaac Yong of Singapore by 4-0. He defeated his opponent by a margin of 11-6, 11-7, 11-4, 11-7. Kamal was at his best during the match as he crushed his opponent in four straight games and did not really allow him to be in a position of advantage. Gnanasekaran also moved to the final four stage by defeating Sam Walker of England by 3-2. He defeated his English opponent by 11-5, 11-7, 11-5, 8-11, 10-12, 11-9. The match was a well-fought one on part of Walker. Gnanasekaran was in the lead by winning the first two games. But the Englishman bounced back to win the next two games, though the Indian contested well. Things were now even at 2-2. Gnanasekaran held his nerves to win the final game which booked his ticket to the semis. Sanil Shetty on the other hand crashed out of the men's singles competition after suffering a 1-4 defeat to England's Liam Pitchford. Pitchford had lost the first game by 9-11. He came back strong to register wins by 11-6, 11-8, 11-8, 11-4 in the next four games and booked his ticket to the semis. Earlier, the Indian team also notched a few wins in the women's doubles category as well. The women's doubles duos of Manika Batra and Diya Prayag and Sreeja Akula and Reeth Tennison advanced to the quarterfinals after securing impressive wins on Saturday in their round of 16 matches. Manika-Diya defeated Oumehani Hosenally and Nandashwaree Jalim of Mauritius by 3-0. This Indian duo won against their opponents by 11-5, 11-5, 11-3. Manika and Diya were off to a good start as they won the first game convincingly. They did not look back from there and followed it with two more wins to seal the match and book their ticket to the quarterfinal. The other Indian women's doubles duo of Sreeja Akula and Reeth Tennison was also impressive in their 3-0 win over Anna Chloe Thomas Wu Zang and Lara Whitto of Wales. Akula-Tennison emerged victorious in this one-sided match by 11-7, 11-4, 11-3 to book their slot in the quarterfinal. The Welsh duo was not given too many chances to cut the deficit and lost the match within three games. (ANI)
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