Indian table tennis player, G Sathiyan progressed to the men’s singles final at the ITTF Czech International Open after his Swedish opponent Truls Moregardh retired hurt on Wednesday.
The top-seeded paddler comfortably won his first two matches, with the final score being 11-4 11-8. He was leading the third 8-2 when Moregardh withdrew from the match, due to an injury the Swede suffered in the semi-final game. Sathiyan who is ranked 39 in the world, will face Ukraine’s Yevhen Pryshchepa at the finals later in the day.
Last week, the 28-year-old paddler paired up with the fellow star, Manika Batra to win the mixed doubles title at the WTT Contender in Budapest. He is also ranked number 20 in the mixed doubles category, after winning the WTT Contender. He has won a gold medal at the ITTF Challenge in Belgium in 2016 and one in ITTF Challenge Spain too in 2017. He and the men’s team won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games held in 2018.
Along with that, he has won a silver in ITTF Major- Bulgaria 2017 for doubles. He won doubles silver at the Commonwealth Games 2018 and the ITTF Major – Hungarian 2020. He won bronze medals at the Commonwealth Games 2018 for doubles, Asian Games 2018 as a representative of the men’s team, ITTF Platinum – Australian 2019 for doubles and ITTF Challenge Plus – Oman 2019 for singles
His highest rank has been 24 and was the first Indian to break into the world top 25 of the ITTF Rankings. Will he win the gold this time? We have to continue watching today for his final match.
