The Indian men’s doubles pair of Sharath Kamal and G. Sathiyan bagged its second International bronze medal in two weeks, by finishing third in the International Table Tennis Federation-World Tour Swedish Open here.
After putting it across the English pair of Liam Pitchford and Paul Drinkhall in the pre-quarterfinals 4-11, 10-12, 12-10, 11-8, 11-8 and Aruna Quadri (Nigeria) and Diogo Carvalho of Portugal 11-7, 11-13, 11-8, 11-4 in the quarterfinals, the Indian pair lost to the Hong Kong duo of Kit Kwan Ho and Ting Chun Wong12-10, 11-3, 7-11, 11-4 in the semifinals. The Indian pair had earlier won the bronze in the ITTF-Belgium Open Challenge in the first week of November.
“We are coming together well as a pair. Having defeated England’s Drinkhall and Pitchford in the World championships in May-June this year and again here [Swedish Open), gives us a lot of confidence. We still need to work on more patterns. But no doubt, the twin bronze medals have give us hope to hope for a gold in the Commonwealth Games next year,” said Sathiyan.