Doha, March 24 (Agency) India’s star paddlers Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra clinched a silver medal in the mixed doubles event as India finished with two medals (a silver and a bronze) at the WTT Contender here on Thursday. The Indian pair, who are ranked seventh in the world, went down 3-0 (4-11, 5-11, 3-11) to world No. 1 Cheng I-Ching and Lin Yun-Ju of Chinese Taipei(Taiwan) in the final.
This was the third second spot finish for Manika and Sathiyan since they paired up, they won WTT Contender in Budapest and bagged silver in Tunis last year. In the men’s singles, veteran paddler Sharath Kamal bagged a bronze, losing 4-3 (5-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 11-5, 10-12, 9-11) to China’s Yuan Licen in a closely contested semifinal match on Wednesday.