Divyanshi, Payas trigger upsets

Payas Jain upstaged G. Sathiyan within the males’s singles first spherical of the WTT Star Contender in Chennai on Thursday.
| Picture Credit score: R. Ravindran

On a day when top-ranked paddlers together with Tomokazu Harimoto, Hugo Calderano and Hina Hayata amongst others got a bye, two younger Indian gamers and an Indian legend in his swansong, hogged the limelight within the WTT Star Contender Chennai on the Nehru Indoor Stadium right here on Thursday.

Fourteen-year-old Divyanshi Bhowmick defeated World No.64 Giorgia Piccolin of Italy 13-15, 11-9, Sept. 11, 1-11, 11-6 within the girls’s singles first spherical whereas 21-year-old Payas Jain outlclssed his 32-year-old compatriot G. Sathiyan 11-8, 2-11, 11-8, 11-3 within the males’s singles first spherical.

Later, on the present court docket, Sharath Kamal, India’s flagbearer for greater than twenty years, was too good for qualifier Anirban Ghosh as he gained 11-7, 11-9, 12-10.

Taking part in her first-ever girls’s match on the worldwide circuit, Divyanshi proved she has what it takes to be within the greater echelons. “My solely preparation was to benefit from the match as a result of she’s a senior and it’s a great factor for me,” {the teenager} mentioned.

As a wild card entrant, who misplaced within the first-round major draw within the earlier two WTT Star Contender editions in Goa (2023 & 2024), Payas got here via the rungs as a qualifier this time to show his price with an all-out attacking show.

“I really feel nice proper now. And I’m comfortable that I’ve been constant from the qualifying spherical. In opposition to Sathiyan, I used to be tactically good and sustained the momentum after I beat him 4-0 within the quarters of the Senior Nationwide championships in Surat in January,” mentioned Payas.

The outcomes (first spherical, Indians except talked about): Males’s singles: Harmeet Desai bt Kim Taehyun (Mlt) 12-10, 11-5 11-5; Manav Thakkar bt Divyansh Srivastava 11-4, 11-7, 11-7; Manush Shah bt John Oyebode (Ita) 11-13, 12-10, 13-11, 11-6; Payas Jain bt G. Sathiyan 11-8, 2-11, 11-8, 11-3; Sharath Kamal bt Anirban Ghosh 11-7, 11-9, 12-10.

Ladies’s singles: Divyanshi Bhowmick bt Giorgia Piccolin (Ita) 13-15, 11-9, Sept. 11, 11-1, 11-6; Ayhika Mukherjee bt Sutirtha Mukherjee 11-9, 7-11, 11-8, 8-11, 12-10; Kavya Bhatt bt Wong Hoi Tung (Hkg) 11-8, 8-11, 11-6, 11-6; Zhu Chengzhu (Hkg) bt Yoo Yerin (Kor) 11-6, 11-8, 11-6; Kavya Bhatt bt Wong Hoi Tung (Hkg) 11-8, 8-11, 11-6, 11-6; Yuan Wan (Ger) bt Poymantee Baisya 11-3, 11-6, 15-13; Deborah Vivarelli bt Anjali Rohilla 11-6, 11-8, 11-5; Jieni Shao (Por) bt Barbora Balazova (Svk) 11-7, 11-8, 11-13, 11-9.