G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai win men's doubles title at WTT Contender Tunis

Indian partner Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Harmeet Desai won the men's doubles title at the WTT Contender Tunis 2021 in Turkey on Saturday. They defeated France's Emmanuel Lebesson and Alexandre Cassin 3-1 in the final. 

This is G Sathiyan's second WTT Contender title this year. G Sathiyan-Harmeet Desai got victory over French Olympians Emmanuel Lebesson and Alexandre Cassin 3-1 (11-9, 4-11, 11-9, 11-5) in the final.

This is Sathiyan Gnanasekaran's second WTT Contender title in 2021, having won the mixed doubles event at the WTT Contender Budapest with Manika Batra back in August.

At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, G Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai, were part of the gold medal-winning men's team. Now they began commendably. They started dominating rapid exchanges to win the first game.

Also read: WTT Contender Tunis Table Tennis: G Sathiyan Wins While Manika And Sharath Disappoints

The Indian table tennis duo was outplayed in the second game. But after being forced into errors with their returns, many of which went long.

They fought the third game closely. Sathiyan-Harmeet continued to struggle with their returns. On the other side, the French pair couldn't get their angles right. BrcauseThey allowed the Indians to take a 2-1 lead.

Sathiyan-Harmeet were quick off the blocks in the fourth game. They took an early 5-1 lead and Harmeet Desai pulled off some fine soft shots to force Lebesson-Cassin on the backfoot.

However, the Frenchmen soon clawed back to 5-4 after a few returns from Sathiyan-Harmeet went wide. The Indian pair soon caught up the title.