Jeddah [Saudi Arabia], May 9 (ANI): Star Indian table tennis player Manika Batra’s journey at the Saudi Smash 2024 came to an end after she suffered a loss in the women’s singles quarter-final match on Thursday.
Batra conceded a defeat to Japan’s Hina Hayata and lost the game 4-1 (11-7, 6-11, 4-11,11-13, 2-11). The match lasted for 39 minutes.
The Indian table tennis player started well and took an early lead but Hayata made a solid comeback in the game and forced Batra to make errors. The Japanese table tennis player consistently won the next four games.
Earlier on Wednesday, Batra became the first Indian singles table tennis player to make her place in the quarter-finals of a WTT Grand Smash event after a promising 3-0 win against Germany’s Nina Mittelham.
In the round of 32 of the Saudi Smash 2024, Manika Batra stunned People’s Republic of China’s Wang Manyu after beating the Andreea Dragoman of Romania in the opening round of the tournament.
Manika recently lost her top-ranked women’s singles player place in India to Sreeja Akula. Currently, Sreeja is ranked 38th in the world.
Batra’s defeat ended India’s run at the Saudi Smash 2024. Sharath Kamal and Sreeja Akula were out of the tournament in the opening round of the men’s and women’s singles rounds, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Indian pair of Manav Thakkar-Manush Shah (men’s doubles) and Ayhika Mukherjee-Sutirtha Mukherjee (women’s doubles) lost in the second round in Jeddah. While in the mixed doubles, Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade suffered a loss in the final eight round. (ANI)
