Paris: Sreeja Akula, Manika Batra move to next rounds in TT

India’s top table tennis players Sreeja Akula and Manika Batra entered the round of 32 after defeating their opponents at the Paris Olympics here on Sunday.

 

Akula managed a clinical 4-0 win over Sweden’s Christina Kallberg.

 

The player who had created history by becoming the first Indian paddler to win a WTT Contender singles title, registered a 11-4, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8 victory in 30 minutes over the Swede.

 

Manika Batra beat Great Britain’s Anna Hursey in five games to clinch a dominant 4-1 win in the round of 64 on Sunday.

 

Batra fought it out with the Brit, who gave the Indian a run for her money with close games of 11-8, 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5.

 

Akula had little trouble bagging the first set but was stretched in the second, and her rival continued to do that in the next two sets as well.

 

In the third set, Sreeja and Kallberg went neck-to-neck till 7-5, but the Indian found her bearings just in time to pocket it.

 

Sreeja made the early running in the fourth set, taking a 9-3 lead, but a few unforced errors and a couple of good smashes helped Kallberg narrow the lead to 9-7 and then to 10-8.

 

But a powerful unanswered forehand to the right corner of the table propelled Sreeja to the next round.