They had the then world No.1 Korean pair of Jang Woo-jin and Lim Jong-hoon in their grasp, grabbed a match point, until it all slipped into a heartbreaking five-game quarter-final defeat. As an underdog pair on which not many had placed their bets, Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah came within one point of scripting one of Indian TT’s greatest victories and surging to the podium of the Hangzhou Asian Games.
“That’s when me and Manav came together and thought we can take doubles more seriously, and make some history for India in the future,” said Manush.
But we’re looking at it as an opportunity, that we have come a long way from the last 2-3 years. Manush is in his second Asian Games while Manav, in his third, was part of the 2018 bronze medal-winning men’s team but did not play a match. “This Asian Games, we have expectations from ourselves. Of course, there’s a little pressure. “I’m counter-attacking, he is aggressive. “We started working on our weak areas over the last few years and complementing each other better. “After Sharath bhaiya left, we both wanted to do well in events like the World and Asian Championships. “We are doing everything well, and have experience now. We feel that one break, one result… somebody needs to step up. So hopefully, starting with the Asian Games, me and Manush can do that. If the best of the Manav-Manush pair unfolds at Aichi-Nagoya, it would give them the big-stage breakthrough they are desperately after.
“This time, we are one of the favourites,” said Manush. “Three years ago, we were underdogs who were just enjoying the experience,” said Manav. He has good power, I have control,” said Manav. But we couldn’t convert some matches,” said Manav.
The Indian duo is ranked third in men’s doubles in the WTT charts, and enters Aichi-Nagoya as the biggest medal hope for Indian TT, which kickstarts its campaign with the team events on Sunday.
