Sathiyan Gnanasekaran Exits ITTF World Cup After Losing to Timo Boll

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran‘s dream run at the ongoing International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Men’s World Cup in China came to an end after losing to Timo Boll in the pre-quarterfinals on Saturday.

Sathiyan had made it to the round of 16 with impressive victories against higher-ranked opponents on Friday.

However, on Saturday, against the former world No. 1 Boll, the Sathiyan did give hopes of an upset when he pocketed the first game 11-7. However, Boll quickly found his bearings and drew level at 1-1 winning the second game 11-8. That was all the German, two-time world champion, needed to take control of the tie as he won the following three games 11-5, 11-9 and 11-8 to enter the quarter-finals with a 4-1 win.

Sathiyan, playing in his maiden world cup, gave a solid account of himself holding his own against no. 12 seed Simon Gauzy and no. 14 seed Jonathan Groth on Friday.

The world No. 30 beat Gauzy 11-13, 9-11, 11-8, 14-12, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8 before getting the better of Gauzy 11-3, 12-10, 7-11, 16-14, 8-11, 11-8 to book his spot in the main draw of the event being held in Chengdu.