The Indian pairing of Sharath Kamal and G. Sathiyan in men's doubles and Sharath and Manika Batra in mixed doubles assured themselves of a medal each as they entered the semi-finals of the 2020 ITTF World Tour Hungary Open here on Friday.
Sharath and Sathiyan defeated home favourites Nandor Ecseki and Adam Szudi 11-8, 11-7, 11-8 in the quarterfinals, after having sent the Japanese pair of Shunsuke Togami and Yukia Uda 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 9-11, 11-9 packing in the previous round.
In the semi-final to be played later this evening, the men doubles pair will take on top-seeded Kit Kwan Ho and Ting Chun Wong from Hong Kong.
As for Sharath and Manika, they got a walkover in the quarterfinals from the second-seeded Japanese pair of Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito after Mizutani pulled out because of a neck injury he suffered during his singles event. The Indians are slated to meet German duo of Patrick Franziska and Petrissa Solja in the evening.
Meanwhile, Sathiyan and Manika entered men and women singles pre-quarterfinals. Sathiyan will take on top-seed Harimoto Tomokazu and Manika clashes with Japanese Miu Hirano in the round of 16 late tonight.
Sathiyan beat Noshad Alamiyan of Iran 4-1 while Manika won over Szu-Yu Chen of Taipei 4-3 in a tough round of 32 match.
