Sathiyan-Sharath make maiden ITTF Hungary Open final

CHENNAI: The Indian pair of A Sharath Kamal and G Sathiyan got the better of top-seeded Hong Kong duo Ho Kwan Kit and Wong Chun Ting 3-2 (11-7, 12-10, 4-11, 4-11, 11-9) to make the maiden final of the ITTF World Tour Hungary Open at Budapest on Friday evening.
Sharath and Manika Batra in mixed doubles assured themselves of a medal by making to the semifinals. Sharath and Manika Batra will take on German duo of Patrick Franziska and Petrissa Solja in the last-4 clash.
The India duo started off well, bagging the first two games but their Hong Kong counterparts came back very strongly to level the scores 2-2 by snatching two back-to-back games, pushing the match to the fifth and final game.It was evenly poised in the decider but the Indian pair held their nerves and wrapped it up 3-2 in their favour.
"It's a very tournament and is one of the most competitive events in the Pro-Tours. Making to the final is a huge achievement but I want Sathiyan and Sharath to win the first-ever gold for the country. It'll be a great beginning of the season…" Sathyian long-time coach and former national champion S Raman told TOI.
Earlier in the day, Sharath and Sathiyan blanked local favourites Nandor Ecseki and Adam Szudi 3-0 (11-8, 11-7, 11-8) in the quarterfinals, after having defeated Japanese pair of Shunsuke Togami and Yukia Uda 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 9-11, 11-9 in the pre-quarters.
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.
In women's singles, Manika went down to Japanese Miu Hirano 9-11, 1-11, 7-11, 7-11 in the pre-quarterfinals. Sathiyan is still in the fray and is also slated to meet top-seed Harimoto Tomokazu. In the round of 32, Sathiyan defeated Noshad Alamiyan of Iran 4-1.