In the round of 16 men’s singles match at the Asian Table Tennis Championships on Friday, India’s Manav Thakkar faced off against the Chinese legend Ma Long. Despite suffering a 0-3 defeat, the 23-year-old from Surat displayed understandable nerves as he went up against arguably the greatest player of all time. However, he managed to give a commendable performance in the three games he participated in. Manav, who is ranked 100th, held a 9-5 lead in the first game, but Long managed to win the next six points. Similarly, in the second game, the Indian had an 8-4 advantage, but he couldn’t maintain the high level of table tennis performance required to consistently compete against the five-time Olympic gold medalist — two in singles and three in team events. Long dominated the third game to complete an 11-9, 12-10 and 11-5 win. “It was a wonderful experience playing him ahead of the Asian Games. There were much learning and many positives,” Manav told. “I was bit nervous in the beginning but became confident as the strokes were landing. Many people were supporting me in the stands. In the end, I was able to match his level but was not consistent enough. What stands out in great players like him is that they raise their game as the match progresses”. Earlier on Friday, Manav had pulled off a memorable 11-8, 8-11, 11-7, and 11-7 win over world number 33 Kao Cheng-Jui of South Korea to enter the pre-quarterfinals. On a day when the seasoned G Sathiyan and Sharath Kamal lost their round of 32 matches, another heartening performance came from the 170th ranked Ayhika Mukherjee who stretched the Olympic bronze medallist Chen Xingtong of China to five games, before going down in the women’s singles round of 32. Ayhika was on course for the biggest win of her career after taking a 2-0 lead in the best of five affair. However, the world No 4 fought back to take the next three games with the final scoreline reading 2-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-3 in favour of the Chinese. In the men’s doubles quarterfinals, Thakkar and Manush Shah lost to the formidable Chinese combine of Fan Zhendong and Lin Gaoyuan 5-11, 3-11, 5-11. The women’s doubles pairing of Ayhika and Sutirtha Mukherjee suffered a similar fate against the mighty Chinese pairing of Wang Manyu and Chen Meng, losing 5-11, 11-13 and 10-12 in the last eight stage. The Indian men had won a bronze in the preceding team events.
