Table Tennis
WTT Champions Chongqing: Sreeja Akula exits after a hard-fought match
As India's lone participant at the event, Sreeja faced Egypt's Hana Goda and lost the match 3-2 after a hard fought battle.
Sreeja Akula achieves a new career-high ranking of World No. 24 in the latest ITTF rankings.
Ace Indian paddler Sreeja Akula lost her first-round match against higher-ranked Egyptian Hana Goda in the 2024 WTT Champions Chongqing event, on Thursday.
Sreeja was the lone Indian participating in this event and fought very well against Goda. The match ended 3-2 in favor of the Egyptian
It was a tightly fought battle which Hana won 8-11,11-7,5-11,11-5,14-12.
As the score line suggests, Sreeja started well by winning the first game 11-8 before Hana came back to win the second game 11-7 and make it 1-1.
Sreeja took the lead with an 11-5 win in the third game but Hana forced the decider with an 11-5 win in the fourth game.
The final game was a rollercoaster with Sreeja saving five match points but she gave in the last two points as Hana won them to win the game 14-12 and close the match.
Currently ranked number 42 in the ITTF Women's singles world rankings, Sreeja will be going to the 2024 Paris Olympics and will be featuring in the team and individual events.
Sreeja is having a good season this year as she became India's number one for a brief period leaving behind seasoned Manika Batra and winning her maiden international title at WTT Feeder Corpus Chisti 2024.
