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The Indian Table tennis pai G Sathiyan and Manika Batra, ranked 18th in the World, were beaten by Malaysia’s Javen Choong and Karen Lyne, ranked 153rd in the quarter-finals of World Mixed Doubles Table Tennis Olympic Qualifiers in Czechia on Friday.
Ranked 18th in the latest ITTF mixed doubles rankings, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra had to face a shocking 4-1 (11-9, 11-9, 11-9, 7-11,11-8) defeat at the hands of the Malaysian pair. The 8th-seeded Indian table tennis pair had received a bye in the round of 16 bracket and were expected to go through to the next stage easily.
The Indian pair had already lost the quarter-finals of the first knockout round on Thursday and this was their second and last chance to win a Paris Olympics quota for India.
In the first knockout round, they lost 4-1 (7-11, 10-12, 11-9, 6-11, 6-11) against the 21st-ranked Democratic People's Republic of Korea pair Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong.
India's qualification scene in Table Tennis at the Paris Olympics
Indian Men's and Women's Table tennis teams have already secured Paris Olympics Quotas based on their rankings. That quota also enabled Indian singles table tennis players to have two quotas in the men's and women's categories each.
Can the Mixed Doubles team still qualify for the Paris Olympics 2024?
Since the World Mixed Doubles Table Tennis Olympic Qualifiers was the final qualifying event for the mixed doubles table tennis competition ahead of the Paris Olympics, the Indian mixed doubles team is unlikely to earn a place there. As per the rule, the five highest-ranked mixed doubles pairs in the world as of May 7, 2024, will qualify for the Paris Olympics, given that that pair have not already qualified and are from a country which have not qualified.
G Sathiyan and Manika Batra are currently 18 in the mixed doubles world ranking.