Sharath-Manika takes on Manav-Archana in mixed doubles TT final

Asian Games bronze medallists A Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra will take on the top-seeded pair of Manav Thakkar and Archana Girish Kamath in an exciting mixed doubles final of the 80th National Table Tennis Championship here Tuesday.

In the semifinals, second seeded pair of Sharath and Manika defeated third-seeded duo of Sourav Saha and Suthirtha Mukherjee of Haryana 3-1 to set up a clash with Manav and Archana.

In the first semifinal, Manav and Archana had notched up a 3-0 win over fourth-seeded Ravindra Kotiyan and Sagarika Mukherjee of the Railways to enter the finals at the Nehru Stadium here.

In the last edition at Ranchi, none of the PSPB pairs could enter the final as RBI emerged the champions with North Bengal settling for the silver.

After a long and weary third day's play with the team finals going late into the night, the jaded top players needed some rest before resuming the fourth day with just two rounds quarterfinals and semifinals on the fourth day.

Even otherwise, .