Ayhika Mukherjee, G Sathiyan-Manika Batra pair register easy wins in WTT Contender

NEW DELHI: Indian paddler Ayhika Mukherjee sailed into the women's singles pre-quarterfinals even as her compatriots Diya Chitale and Sreeja Akula bit the dust in the opening round of the WTT Contender in Tunis on Thursday.

Ayhika defeated Xiaotong Wang of China 3-0 (11-8, 11-3, 11-2) in her tournament opener to move into the second round, where she will meet the winner of the match between Germany's Sabine Winter and Miyu Nagasaki of Japan.

The Indian mixed doubles pair of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra eased into the quarterfinals with a commanding 3-0 (11-3, 11-3, 11-6) win over Algerian pair of Abdelbasset Chaichi and Malissa Nasri.

The Indian pair will be up Cedric Meissner and Yuan Wan of Germany in the next round.

But it was curtains for Diya and Sreeja.

While Diya lost 1-3 (11-9, 7-11, 2-11, 1-11) to Miyuu Kihara of Japan, Sreeja was shown the door by Yi-Hua Huang of Chinese Taipei 2-3 (6-11, 11-4, 5-11, 11-2, 7-11).

Later in the day, Manika Batra will be up against Yu-Jhun Li of Chinese Taipei in her opening match.