Sreeja Akula clinches WTT Feeder Beirut singles title, Manav-Manush crowned men’s doubles champions
Indian paddler Sreeja Akula clinched the women’s singles title while Manav Thakar and Manush Shah reigned supreme in the men’s doubles event at the WTT Feeder Beirut II in Beirut, Lebanon.
The world no 47 Indian came from behind to pull off a 6-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-9 win over the lower-ranked Sarah D Nutte of Luxembourg at the Al Kawthar Secondary School on Sunday.
The 25-year-old, Commonwealth Games mixed doubled gold medallist, had defeated top seed world no 36 Suh Hyo Won of South Korea earlier.
It is Sreeja’s second WTT singles career title. She had won the Feeder Corpus Christi in January.
However, Sreeja couldn’t make it to twin victories as she lost in the women’s doubles final. Partnering Diya Chitale, the Indian duo went down 4-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-6 to Doo Hoi Kem and Zhu Chengzhu of Hong Kong.
In the men’s doubles summit clash, which was an all-Indian affair, Manav and Manush defeated compatriots Mudit Dani and Akash Pal 11-7, 11-5, 9-11, 11-6.
Poymantee Baisya and Akash Pal upset the experienced duo of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra 11-9, 7-11, 11-9, 11-0 to win their maiden mixed doubles crown Sathiyan, who had lifted his first-ever men’s singles WTT title in Beirut last week, saw his 10-match winning streak snap as he lost men’s singles semifinal to world No. 43 Kazakhstan’s Kirill Gerassimenko.
The Kazakh beat the 103-ranked Sathiyan 3-0 (11-9, 13-11, 11-9).