WTT Grand Smash Singapore: India's campaign ends with Manika/Archana crashing out
The female duo was the only surviving Indian pair in the competition but was subsequently ousted in the quarterfinals
Manika Batra and Archana Kamath (Source: World Table Tennis)
The quarterfinals of the WTT Grand Smash Singapore saw the end of India's final hopes in the competition. The last surviving Indian competitors namely Manika Batra and Archana Kamath were knocked out by Hina Hayata and Mima Ito of Japan earlier today.
The match score was 7-11, 4-11, 8-11 in favour of the Japanese duo who managed to seal the match in less than 25 mins. The final game was particularly important for India as they managed to sustain themselves till the very end until the Japanese duo took the lead.
Despite this quarterfinal knockout, both Batra and Kamath will take heart from the fact that they managed to reach this far and put up a brilliant fight. The pre-quarterfinal match was one that really tested them against the Singaporean duo of Goi Rui Xuan and Wong Xin Ru. However, they managed to overcome the challenge with a 3-2 victory in their favour and advanced to the quarterfinals.
Other Indian pairs and players who lost in the WTT event were India's mixed doubles duo of Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran who lost 0-3 to Chinese Taipei's Lin Yun-Ju and Cheng I-Ching in the quarterfinals.
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran also exited after falling to a 1-3 defeat against South Korea's Lim Jonghoon in the round of 32. Sathiyan and Achanta Sharath Kamal also lost by the same scoreline to the pair from South Korea in the pre-quarters.