New Delhi: G. Sathiyan reached a big milestone in his career when he became only the second Indian to reach the men's singles quarter-finals at the continental event after defeating An-Ji Song of North Korea in the 24th ITTF-ATTU Asian Table Tennis Championships at Yogyakarta, Indonesia on Friday.
The only other occasion when an Indian paddler had reached the singles quarter-finals was when Delhi's Sudhir Phadke beat a Chinese in the pre-quarterfinals of the Asian Championships in Pyongyang, way back in 1976.
The win for the top-ranked Indian in the world was as easy as it can get as Sathiyan beat the North Korean 11-7, 11-8, 11-6 in less than 22 minutes. The Indian ranked No. 30 in the world, will next take on World No. 4 Chinese Lin Gaoyuan in the quarter-finals, to be played later in the day.
Among the women players, only Ayhika entered the pre-quarterfinals before bowing out to three-time world champion and reigning Olympic champion Ding Ning of China 5-11, 13-11, 4-11, 9-11. However, it was creditable that Ayhika could take a game of the top-notch left-hander and event put up a great resistance in the fourth game before being subdued. Ayhika had earlier beaten Mongolian Batbayar Doljinzuu 11-6, 11-7, 11-3 in the previous round. IANS
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