India seals all eight singles semifinal spots at Commonwealth TT Championships

India dominated the 22nd Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships as all eight paddlers reached the men's and women's singles semifinals. Syndrela Das upset top seed Yangzi Liu, while Manush Shah, Payas Jain, Ankur Bhattacharjee and Manav Thakkar advanced in the men's draw

Hyderabad: India continued its overwhelming dominance on the penultimate day of the 22nd Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships at the Thyagaraj Stadium in Delhi on Saturday as all eight Indian paddlers advanced to the men’s and women’s singles semifinals.

If the Indian women completed a clean sweep with four impressive victories to book an all-Indian semifinal lineup, the men also asserted their supremacy by occupying all four semifinal spots after overcoming both international and domestic challenges.

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Thus, they ensured the entire USD 40,000 singles prize purse went solely to their bank accounts. The men and women had already won USD 20,000 as the team finals prize money.

The men’s singles featured a series of hard-fought encounters. Top-seeded Manush Shah was pushed to six games by Australia’s Aditya Sareen, who fought back to claim the third and fourth games after trailing 0-2. However, Manush regained control in the closing stages to seal an 11-6, 11-8, 2-11, 13-15, 11-8, 11-5 victory.

An all-Indian clash between Payas Jain and Harmeet Desai became one of the matches of the day, with momentum shifting throughout the contest. After dropping the opening game, Payas edged two tense deuce games before Harmeet restored parity. Payas then raised his level in the final two games to prevail 8-11, 12-10, 14-12, 10-12, 11-6, 11-9.

Ankur Bhattacharjee also had to dig deep against Australia’s Nicholas Wen Zheng Lum. Trailing after the opening game and again after the third, Ankur held his nerve in crucial moments to win three straight games and complete a 7-11, 15-13, 10-12, 11-5, 11-9, 11-9 comeback victory.

Manav Thakkar capped India’s sweep after recovering from a slow start against England’s Connor Alexander Green. Having lost the opening game, Manav gradually took control with his consistent attacking play, winning the next four games to secure a 5-11, 11-8, 13-11, 11-8, 11-6 win and complete the men’s singles semifinal lineup.

Just before that, the Indian women guaranteed themselves four medals in the women’s singles after all four quarterfinalists advanced to the semifinals, highlighted by Syndrela Das’ stunning upset of top-seeded Australian Yangzi Liu. The Indian contingent had already enjoyed a dominant run through the early rounds, and the clean sweep of the quarterfinals ensured an all-Indian semifinal lineup.

Syndrela produced the day’s biggest result, rallying after dropping the opening game to overcome Liu 10-12, 11-9, 12-10, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8 in a gripping six-game encounter.

Second-seeded Sreeja Akula also booked her place in the last four, defeating England’s Tin-Tin Ho 13-11, 11-4, 11-9, 12-10. Yashaswini Ghorpade was in commanding form, brushing aside Australia’s Constantina Psihogios 4-0, and Sutirtha Mukherjee completed India’s perfect day with a 4-1 victory over Australia’s Min Hyung Jee.