Nagoya, Sep 23 The Indian pairings of Harmeet Desai-Yashaswini Ghorpade and Diya Chitale-Manush Shah on Wednesday eased into the mixed doubles quarterfinals of the Asian Games here.
The world number seven duo of of Chitale and Shah hardly broke a sweat in their 3-0 wins over the combination from Sri Lanka and Maldives.
In the round of 16, Shah and Chitale blanked Moosa Ahmed and Aishath Nazeem 11-0, 11-7, 11-6. They play Hong Kong’s Doo Hoi Kim and Wong Chun Ting in quarterfinals on Thursday. A win would assure them of a medal in the continental event.
Ghorpade and Desai will face the world number six pairing of Lin Shidong and Kuai Man from China. The Indian pair’s hard fought wins on the day came against opponents from Hong Kong and Maldives.
In their opening match, Desai and Ghorpade were pushed to the decider by Mohammed Ismail and Fathimath Ali from Maldives before scraping through 9-11, 11-6, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6.
They had it slightly easier against Hong Kong’s Wing Lam NG and Kwan To Yiu winning 11-6, 11-5, 10-12, 11-7.
(PTI News)
