India’s Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar reached the quarterfinals of the prestigious China Smash on Wednesday.
The World No. 16 men’s doubles pair defeated Chile’s Nicolas Burgos and Gustavo Gomez 16-14, 8-11, 11-7, 11-8 in the pre-quarterfinals.
The opening game was intense and closely contested. The Indian duo claimed an early lead and widened the gap, but Nicolas and Gustavo fought back to level the score at 11-11. Though Manush and Manav reached the game point again, the Chilean players equalized at 13-13 and then at 14-14.
However, the Indians held their nerves and won the next two points to secure a crucial opening-game lead.
In the second game, Nicolas and Gustavo showed resilience, levelling the match by winning 11-8.
With the match poised for a thrilling finish, Manush and Manav raised their game and cruised through the next two sets to seal their spot in the quarterfinals.
They will now face the winners of the match between Santiago Lorenzo-Aditya Sareen and Liang Jingkun-Wang Chuqin in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Later today, India’s top women’s doubles pairing of Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee will take on Chinese Taipei’s Chen I-Ching and Li Yu-Jhun in the pre-quarterfinals.