WTT Contender Tunis: Gnanasekaran-Desai lift doubles title in Tunisia
Oct 30, 2021
Rades [Tunisia], October 30 : Indian pair of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Harmeet Desai lifted the men's doubles title at the WTT Contender Tunis 2021 in Tunisia on Saturday.
Playing at Table 1 of Salle Omnisport de Rades, the Indians defeated the French duo 3-1 in the final. Gnanasekaran and Desai defeated the team of Emmanuel Lebesson and Alexandre Cassin by 11-9, 4-11, 11-9, 11-6.
On day three, Emmanuel Lebesson and Jia Nan Yuan of France returned from 2-0 to beat second seeds Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra 3-2 (7-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-9) in the mixed-doubles semi-final of the tournament.
In the final of MD, top-seeds, Lebesson and Yuan again came from 2-0 down to beat Belarus' Aleksandr Khanin and Daria Trigolos. The Belarusians were coasting home after winning the first two games at 11-3, 11-9. After a shaky start, the French pair turned the tide and fought their way back into reckoning by taking the next three games for a 3-2 win (3-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-9).
The climax of day four is the Men's Singles final match as Dang Qiu of Germany aims for his first WTT Contender title against Anton Kallberg of Sweden.
WTT Contender is the foundation of the WTT Series structure, offering a total prize purse of USD 75,000 and 400 ITTF World Ranking Points across Men's and Women's Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles competitions.
