Tournaments

19 Mar 2021

The line-up for the mixed doubles final has been confirmed at the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament with the top two seeded combinations successfully moving through on Friday 19th March, but it wasn't all plain sailing.

by Simon Daish

Korea Republic’s Lee Sangsu and Jeon Jihee boast quite the partnership with proven success on the international stage. In the semi-finals they met Thailand’s Padasak Tanviriyavechakul and Suthasini Sawettabut.

Seeded third for the draw, Tanviriyavechakul and Sawettabut had the odds stacked against them but made more than a good impression at the table – the stronger pair in game one, the Thai players put on a fine show and remained well within the contest with the scores level at 2-2 by the close of game four.

However, the quality of Lee and Jeon soon began to tell with the Koreans claiming back-to-back games to negotiate the match in six games (4-11, 11-7, 11-4, 5-11, 11-8, 11-8).

Contesting the other semi-final, India’s Sharath Kamal Achanta and Manika Batra were also made to work hard with the no.2 seeds narrowly holding off Singapore’s Pang Yew En Koen and Lin Ye, seeded fourth (12-10, 9-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-8, 13-11).

The bronze medal-winning pair at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Achanta and Batra have developed into a formidable outfit and will be more than up for the challenge when they meet face-to-face with Lee and Jeon for a ticket to Tokyo 2020.

Play in the mixed doubles event concludes on Saturday 20th March with the final scheduled from 10.00 (local time).

Draw & Results

General News Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Lee Sangsu Jeon Jihee Sharath Kamal Achanta Manika Batra
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