The Indian No. 1 men’s doubles pair of Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah advanced to the quarterfinals of the inaugural edition of US Smash 2025 at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, USA, on Wednesday.
The Indian duo came from behind to take a 4-game (12-14, 11-9, 11-8, 11-7) win against the mixed pairing of Tomislav Pucar from Croatia and Lubomir Pistej of Slovenia in pre-quarterfinals.
They will now take on the fourth-seeded South Korean pair of Lim Jonghoon and An Jaehyun in the quarterfinals, aiming for their maiden semifinal appearance on a WTT Grand Smash event.
Manush-Diya exited in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Manush, partnering with Diya Chitale, lost the hard-fought five-game (3-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-4, 7-11) mixed doubles quarterfinal match to world medalist Hong Kong pair of Wong Chun TIng and Doo Hoi Kem.
The Indian duo made a brilliant comeback from two games down to force a decider, but in the end, the experienced Hong Kong pair edged past the Indians with a tactical win in the final game.
Indian singles campaign ended in the second round.
India’s singles campaign ended in the second round as both Indian paddlers, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in men’s singles and Sreeja Akula in women’s singles, lost their respective matches.
Sathiyan, despite winning the opening game, went down to China’s Peng Xiang in four games, while Sreeja lost to Japanese paddler Honoka Hashimoto in her straight-game round of 32 matchup.