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The Indian ace mixed doubles pair of Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran bowed out of the Paris Olympics 2024 race. The ace duo suffered a heartbreaking loss in the second round of the World Olympic Mixed Doubles Qualification Tournament in Havirov, Czech Republic on April 12, Friday. This was the final opportunity for the Indian paddlers to secure their berth at the upcoming tournament as the men’s and women’s teams have already secured their quota.
Sathiyan and Manika lost the quarter-finals of their knockout bracket on April 11, as they went down to North Korea’s Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong. The Indians lost their QF round to 21st-seeded pair by 1-4 (7-11, 10-12, 11-9, 6-11, 6-11). Earlier in the round of 16, the eighth-seeded Indian duo registered a win over Georgios Stamatouros and Malamatenia Papadimitriou from Greece 11-8, 11-9, 11-8, 11-6.
However, after a disheartening loss in the first round, the world-ranked 18th pair got a second chance as per the format of the tournament. Unfortunately, Batra and Gnanasekaran couldn’t make the most of their chance and lost to Malaysia's Javen Choong and Karen Lyne 9-11, 9-11, 9-11, 11-7, 8-11.
According to the tournament’s format, the 24 teams who failed to secure the two quotas in Stage 1 were divided into two knockout brackets for Stage 2 and were seeded according to their performances in the first stage. Batra and Gnanasekaran weren’t in their best form and their rankings also saw a drop as they moved out of the top 15 in world rankings, hence, they couldn’t qualify on the basis of their rankings.
