India’s Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra enjoyed scenes of celebration after they defeated Hungary’s Nandor Ecseki and Dora Madarasz 3-1 (11-9, 9-11, 12-10, 11-6) to clinch the Mixed Doubles title at WTT Contender Budapest.

The Indian duo got off to an encouraging start by taking the opening game 11-9 to set the early pace. However, the Hungarians levelled the score 1-1 after winning the second game. Any hopes of securing their first WTT Contender Series title on home soil were dashed when Gnanasekaran and Batra won the next two games to round off a remarkable week for them.

“It was our first tournament after a very long time, and I think we are the first winner of India in mixed doubles so we can be really proud and happy now. We played really well. The mixed doubles is always a tricky one, because you need to complement each other at the table and we have a really good connection between us. We needed to be very intelligent and play with different strategies. We combined our hits very well and that led to our success,” said Gnanasekaran

Defeat for Madarasz in the Mixed Doubles final, but there was sheer delight for the Hungarian at the final hurdle of the Women’s Doubles as she combined with Szandra Pergel to strike gold.

Facing opposition from Russian top seeds Olga Vorobeva and Yana Noskova, the number two seeded pair of Madarasz and Pergel, looked the more composed combination from the start. They were rarely troubled throughout the match, beating Vorobeva and Noskova in quick fashion (11-7, 11-6, 11-6).

“I think we dominated them during the final. In the third game I thought that we must win this encounter as we were the better duo today. I had the advantage from playing in the mixed doubles as I got used to the harder hits. Due to this I felt more comfortable at the table against our Russian opponents,” said Madarasz

Russia was also restricted to a runner-up finish in the Men’s Doubles event, with Kirill Skachkov and Vladimir Sidorenko falling just short.

Second seeds Skachkov and Sidorenko were slightly off the pace right from game one as German counterparts Tobias Hippler and Kilian Ort flew out of the starting blocks. The contest was over by the close of game four, as Hippler and Ort brought their inspirational campaign to the perfect conclusion (11-3, 11-7, 6-11, 11-7).

“At the beginning we struggled, but the second game was a little better. We have played against our opponents many times before, so we knew them and their skills. We are an effective duo and that was the key to our success. We are really proud of ourselves, and I think we improved match by match. We are very happy with this victory,” said Hippler

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