Snehit first fought back from a 0-2 deficit to take the match in the decider and then displayed nerves of steel to convert his third match point to win 3-2 (9-11, 15-17, 11-4, 11-6, 18-16) in 52 minutes to set up a Round of 16 clash against top seed Oh Junsung in the event co-hosted by Ultimate Table Tennis, Sharath Kamal Academy, and Stupa Sports AI with the support of SDAT. <\/p>\r\n\r\n
Nithya, World No. 481, upset 14th seed Jee of Australia 3-2 (10-12, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7) in the second round clash. She will now face fourth seed Cheng I-Ching of Chinese Taipei, who defeated Ayhika Mukherjee 3-1 (11-9, 11-5, 11-13, 11-5).<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Also advancing to the men\u2019s pre-quarters were 10th seed G Sathiyan and 15th seed Manush Shah. Sathiyan defeated the Korea Republic\u2019s Lim Jonghoon 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 13-11) while Manush beat another Korean, Park Gyuhyeon, 11-6, 11-7, 11-9. Sathiyan will now face Romanian 8th seed Eduard Ionescu, while Manush will meet Lubomir Jancarik of the Czech Republic.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
But it was Snehit\u2019s win that kept everyone on the edge of their seat on Friday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Explaining what was going on in his mind during the business end of the fifth game, Snehit said, \u201cI was just telling myself to focus on one point at a time and not think of the score as I made mistakes on the first two match points\u201d.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The 25-year-old said he went into the match without much expectation, but the first two games he lost actually gave him the confidence that he could put up a fight. \u201cI lost the first game 9-11, and I was struggling to believe that I could match his level. Then I lost the second game, which was also close, but that gave me confidence to win the next,\u201d he added. <\/p>\r\n\r\n
Explaining what was going on in his mind during the business end of the fifth game, Snehit said, \u201cI was just telling myself to focus on one point at a time and not think of the score as I made mistakes on the first two match points\u201d.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
India is assured of one spot in the mixed doubles final as they will face fourth seeds Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade in the semifinals.<\/p>\r\n\r\n