CWG 2022: Twin delight for Sharath Kamal, enters semifinals of mixed and men's doubles

Commonwealth Games on Friday. Sharath first paired up with young Sreeja Akula to stun two-time silver medallists Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho of England 3-2 (11-7 8-11 11-8 11-13 11-9) in mixed doubles and then combined with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran to beat another English pair of Tom Jarvis and Sam Walker 3-0 (11-6 11-8 11-4) in men's doubles event. Another mixed pair of Sathiyan and Manika Batra, however, went down 2-3 to Malaysian combination of Javen Choong and Karen Lyne, while men's pairing of Sanil Shetty and Harmeet Desai also ended their campaign with a 0-3 loss to Singapore's Chew Zhe Yu Clarence and Poh Shao Feng Ethan.

Sreeja and Sharath had earlier come from behind to beat Malaysia's Leond Chee Fang and Ho Ying 5-11 11-2 11-6 11-5, while Sharath and Gnanasekaran eased past Bangladesh's Bawm Ramhimlian and Ridoy Mohutasin Ahmed 11-6 11-1 11-4 in their round of 16 clash. In another result, Sreeja and Reeth Tennison entered the pre-quarterfinals with a 3-0 win over Scotland's Lucy Elliott and Rebecca Plaistow. Earlier, Manika and Sreeja had entered the women's singles quarterfinals.

While the 27-year-old Batra steamrolled Australian Jee Minhyung 11-4 11-8 11-6 12-10 to set up a fight with Singapore's Jian Zeng, Sreeja played out a nerve-wracking encounter against Charlotte Carey of Wales to secure herself a last eight berth. The 24-year-old toiled hard but held her nerves to beat Carey 8-11 11-7 12-14 9-11 11-4 15-13 12-10. Sreeja will lock horns with Canada's Mo Zhang.

Meanwhile, Reeth Tennison bowed out in the women's singles event after she went down to Singapore's Feng Tianwei in a round of 16 match. Tianwei proved too strong for Tennison as the latter was beaten 11-2 11-4 9-11 11-3 11-4. Manika and Sreeja