CHENNAI: It was a mixed day at the office for star paddler G Sathiyan on Friday. He made the men’s doubles final along with Harmeet Desai but his journey in the mixed doubles and in the singles was cut short at the WTT Contender in Tunisia.
Sathiyan and Harmeet dug deep to defeat the Hungarian pair Nandor Ecseki and Adam Szudi 3-2 (8-11, 12-14, 11-9, 11-8, 11-9) and make the men’s doubles final.
Sathiyan and Harmeet didn’t enjoy the best of starts as they went down in the first two games 8-11, 12-14. However, the duo began to gather steam in the third game — winning it 11-9.
They went on to win the next two games 11-8, 11-9 to qualify for the summit clash. Sathiyan and Harmeet will take on Frenchmen Emmanuel Lebesson and Alexandre Cassin in the final on Saturday.
In the mixed doubles, Sathiyan and Manika went down to Emmanuel Lebesson and Yuan Jia Nan 3-2 (11-7, 11-9, 6-11, 9-11, 9-11) in the semifinals.
In the singles quarters, Sathiyan lost to Dang Qiu in straight games 11-5, 17-15 and 11-6.