New Delhi [India]: Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Anurag Thakur praised the Indian paddler duo of Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran after they bagged the mixed doubles title at the WTT Contender Budapest table tennis event on Friday. Manika Batra and G Sathiyan defeated Hungary’s Nandor Ecseki and Dora Madarasz 3-1 (11-9, 9-11, 12-10, 11-6) to become the first Indian table tennis players to win a WTT Contender title. “Really well played @sathiyantt & @manikabatra_TT!!! The champion duo beat Nandor Ecseki/Dora Madarasz 11-9 9-11 12-10 11-6 in the mixed doubles finals event at the 2021 WTT Contender Budapest,” Anurag Thakur tweeted. The fifth-seeded Indian duo only faced hiccups during the second set of the match as after tying the score 9-9, two errors by them allowed Ecseki-Madarasz to win the second game. Batra and Sathiyan then easily regained their momentum in the last two games of the match after winning the first, to lift the mixed doubles title. They were the only Indian players in action on the final day of the WTT Contender Budapest. The WTT Contender Series is a part of the revamped ITTF calendar launched this year and features two tiers of events — WTT Star Contender and WTT Contender, as per Olympics.com. The events carry world ranking points that help players to progress through the new structure into WTT Champions and Grand Smash events.
