Table Tennis
WTT Star Contender Ljubljana: Manika Batra stuns world rank 15 Chen I-Ching
Manika Batra reached the pre-quarterfinals of WTT Star Contender Ljubljana after defeating world rank 15 Chen I-Ching.
FILE PHOTO: Manika Batra won two matches to help India beat Hungary at the World Table Tennis Team Championships in South Korea in February.
Indian table tennis star Manika Batra stunned world number 15 Chen I-ching to enter the women's singles pre-quarterfinals at the WTT Star Contender Ljubljana on Thursday.
Ranked number 32 in the world, it took Manika only 23 minutes to defeat her Chinese Taipei opponent 11-4, 11-9, 11-7 in a round of 32 match.
Ching is a multiple medalist at World Championships and an Olympic medalist in the mixed doubles category.
Manika defeated Margaryta Pesotska of Ukraine in five games in her opening round, and she will world number 17 Bernadette Szocs of Romania in the next round.
The 28-year-old is the only Indian in the women's singles draw.
With Manika winning, the series of upsets by Indian paddlers continued as Harmeet Desai put in a brilliant run at WTT Contender Lagos to defeat top-seeded Korean player Jang Woojin and world rank 26 Peng Xiang to cap off a semi-final run last month.
Following Harmeet's performance, the Indian pair of Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee won the WTT Contender Tunis, where they defeated world rank 4 pair of Jeon Jihee and Shin Yubin from South Korea in the semi-finals.
With Asian Games less than three months away, these wins will give confidence to the Indian table tennis fans of a good show in Hangzhou.
