Asian Games 2026: Yashaswini-Diya, Sreeja-Syndrela advance in table tennis

Indian paddlers enjoyed a successful day at the Asian Games here on Thursday, with women's doubles pairs of Sreeja Akula-Syndrela Das and Yashaswini Ghorpade-Diya Chitale advancing to the pre-quarterfinals. Manush Shah also progressed in the men's singles.Sreeja and Syndrela cruised past Mongolia's Burenjargal Sanjaa and Bolor-Erdene Batmunkh 3-0 (11-5, 11-4, 12-10) in their second-round match.The Ind had a relatively comfortable outing in the opening two games before being pushed hard in the third. They eventually held their nerve to close out the match 12-10.In the last-16, Sreeja and Syndrela face a formidable Chinese combination in Kuai Man and Wang Manyu, who are World Ranked No. 2.The other Indian pair of Yashaswini and Diya also made comfortable progress, blanking Iran's Setayesh Iloukh and Mahshid Ashtari 3-0 (11-2, 11-2, 11-4).Yashaswini and Diya will next face China's Fan Shuhan and Chen Yi in their last-16.In men's singles, world number 43 Manush Shah advanced to the last 32 with a 4-0 win over Malaysia's Wong Qi Shen.The top-ranked Indian prevailed 11-9, 14-12, 11-7, 11-4 and will next face Iran's Benyamin Faraji, ranked 20 in the world.Manav Thakkar, world number 48, is the other Indian in the last 32 after receiving a first-round bye.He will take on North Korea's U Tae Ryong in the second round. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited . It is published from a syndicated feed.)