Sathiyan stuns World No. 17, eases into main draw of elite Austria Open

Mumbai, November 8: India's second best-ranked table tennis player G Sathiyan stunned World No. 17 Sangeun Jong to breeze into the main draw of the prestigious 2018 ITTF World Tour Platinum Austrian Open in Linz on Wednesday night.

Sathiyan began his amazing run in this elite Platinum tournament that is featuring 59 out of the world’s top 60 players, beating the recently crowned Youth Olympic champion from China, Wang Chuqin.

He tamed Chuqin 4-1 to make the most of his first-round bye in the preliminaries. He got off to a winning 11-8 start but lost the next one 12-14. He, however, recovered quickly enough to claim the next three 11-8, 11-6 and 18-16 for a morale-boosting victory.

Sathiyan then beat Slovakia's Lubomir Pistej 4-0 to show that he was on a roll. In the final preliminary, he faced the World No. 17, Korea's Sangeun Jong.

He lost the first two sets 6-11, 13-11 but put up a gallant fightback to wrest the match. He notched up victories in the next four sets 11-3, 11-8, 11-6, 11-6 to grab a berth in the main round.

He faces Marcos Freitas of Portugal in the Round of 32 later in the night.

This is a great opportunity for Sathiyan to pick up crucial points and improve his rankings in the year’s last major Pro Tour event.

All other Indian players fell by the wayside in the preliminaries itself