Table Tennis: Manav assures bronze in Belarus Open

Indian paddler Manav Vikash Thakkar scored an easy 3-0 win over Russia's Lev Katsman to enter the semifinals and assure himself of at least a bronze in under-21 men's singles category at the ITTF Challenge Belgosstrakh Belarus Open here on Friday.

Manav notched up a 3-0 (11-5 11-7 15-13) win over Katsman in the U-21 men's singles quarterfinals.

He had earlier displayed his prowess, registering a hard-fought 3-2 (9-11, 3-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-9) win against World No. 8 Yuki Matsuyama of Japan in the round of 16 of here.

Manav started off his campaign with an easy 3-0 (11-6, 11-2, 11-8) win over Russia's Maksim Grebnev. In the next clash, Israel's Aviv Ben-Ari put up a staunch fight but capitulated to the Indian as Manav won the game 3-1 (12-10, 9-11, 11-6, 11-7).

In the men's singles event, Manav had breezed past Japan's Kohei Sambe 4-2 on Thursday to progress into the round of 32.

Manav didn't have the best of starts as he went down 6-11 in the first game but bounced back to win the next three and capitalized on the lead to bag the tie 4-1.

He will take on World No. 101, Belgium's Robin Devos in the round of 32 encounter later on Friday.

Among others, Harmeet Desai also progressed to the next round of the senior category with a convincing 4-0 win over Germany's Dennis Klein but Sanil Shetty couldn't follow suit, bowing out of the tournament rather meekly after a 0-4 loss to Russia's Denis Ivonin.

Desai will take on Alexey Liventsov of Russia next.

In the men's doubles category, the duo of Harmeet-Sanil couldn't get past the combination of Oleksandr Didukh of Ukraine and Lubomir Pistej of Slovakia in their opening round of 16, going down 1-4 to bow out of the tournament.