table tennis | Sathiyan Gnanasekaran loses in Zagreb WTT Contender QF

Indian paddler Sathiyan Gnanasekaran suffered a back-to-back loss to Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-Yuan in the quarterfinals to withdraw from the 2022 WTT Contender men’s singles event in Zagreb, Croatia on Saturday.

Sathiyan, ranked 34th in the world, lost 7-11 9-11 5-11 to world No. 18 Chih-Yuan.

It was a disappointing result for the Indian, who started his campaign here with a stunning 6-11 12-10 11-9 12-10 victory over the world number one. 6 and reigning European Champion Darko Jorgic of Slovenia.

Sathiyan then defeated 16-year-old Chen Yuanyu of China 11-9 11-7 12-10 to advance to the quarter-finals.

Sathiyan is part of India’s table tennis squad for the upcoming Commonwealth Games to be held in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8.