Table Tennis
World Table Tennis C'ship: Indian campaign ends as Manika Batra bows out
Indian paddlers drew a blank at Table Tennis world championships after Manika Batra, Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan crashed out.
Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran are ranked 5 in the world as a mixed doubles pair. (ITTF)
Star paddler Manika Batra fought hard before going down to Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico 3-4 in the round of 32 as India's campaign ended at the World Table Tennis Championships here on Wednesday.
Up against Diaz, ranked 13th in the ITTF chart, world number 39 Manika took the first game before her opponent stepped on the pedal. It was a reasonably balanced tie till the sixth game with both the players locked at 3-3. But Diaz ran away with the decider as Manika lost 3-4 (6-11, 12-10, 11-9, 6-11, 13-11, 9-11, 11-3) to book her place in the last 16.
Even though she lost, Manika managed to ensure the best result for India in the singles competition here.
Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran then lost to the English pair of Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford 3-1 (11-9, 8-11, 12-14, 10-12) to crash out in the round of 16 of the men's doubles event.
The Indian combination had defeated the same English duo en route to a gold medal in last year's Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
The women's doubles pair of Manika and Archana Kamath also lost in straight games 0-3 (8-11, 6-11, 7-11) to Japan's Hina Hayata and Mima Ito in the round of 16 to exit the tournament.
India drew a blank in the tournament after the paddles lost out in the last moments and failed to close crucial games.
