Table Tennis: Manika Batra wins Nationals title after 5 years

India’s top-ranked paddler Manika Batra overcame a two-game deficit to win the women’s singles title in the 82nd Senior National Table Tennis Championships being played at Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex.

It was Manika’s second Nationals title after winning the first in 2015 in Hyderabad and finishing as a runner-up in Ranchi in 2017.

After going down in the opening two games 8-11 and 10-12 against Reeth Rishya, she came back strongly to take the third game 11-1 before trailing 3-9 in the fourth game. From there, she roared back winning eight consecutive points to take the fourth game 11-9 before clinching the next two games at 11-5 and 11-6.

Earlier in the quarters and semis, she got the better of Achanta Kamath and Sreeja Akula while her opponent in the final Rishya was in flawless form beating defending champion Sutirtha Mukherjee and Takeme Sarkar to reach the final.

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