Indian paddler Sathiyan Gnanasekaran pulled off an upset by beating world No. 6 and reigning European champion, Jorgic Darko, 3-1 to enter the men’s singles round of 16 in the WTT Contender in Zagreb, Croatia.
Sathiyan showed courage and executed his plans to perfection on his way to a 6-11 12-10 11-9 12-10 win over the second seeded Slovenian player in their round of 32 clash on Thursday.
“Went all guns blazing as I secured a MASSIVE WIN tonight taking down the World Rank 6 & current European cup champion Jorgic Darko (SLO) 3-1 in the Men Singles Round of 32 here in WTT Contender Zagreb 2022,” Sathiyan tweeted.
This is Sathiyan’s second win over a player ranked inside top 10 in the world.
Before this, Sathiyan had beaten former World No. 5 Tomakazu Harimoto of Japan during the 2019 Asian Championships.
Sathiyan is part of the Indian table tennis squad for the upcoming 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, which is to start on July 28.