India's mixed and women's doubles pairs win silver medals at WTT Contender Muscat

Manav Thakkar and Archana Kamath clinched a silver medal after losing their final match, as did the women's doubles duo of Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee at the WTT Contender tournament in Muscat on Saturday. The Thakkar-Kamath duo lost 3-11, 3-11, 6-11 to the Chinese pair of Wang Chuqin and Chen Xintong in the mixed doubles final while Sutirtha and Ayhika suffered a 6-11, 11-8, 10-12, 7-11 defeat at the hands of Zhang Rui and Kuai Man, also from China, in the women's doubles summit clash.

On Friday, Sreeja Akula and Selenadeepthi Selvakumar had won a women's doubles bronze after losing in the semifinals to Sutirtha and Ayhika. It was a creditable performance from both the mixed doubles and women's doubles pairs as they could finish on the podium while the likes of G Sathiyan and Manika Batra failed to rise to the expectations.

The focus of Indian paddlers will now shift to Singapore Smash tournament that carries a USD 2 million prize purse. The event begins with the qualifiers on March 7 and runs till March 20.