Tokyo: Indian paddlers Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee made a resounding start to their respective Tokyo Olympics campaigns on Saturday. However, it was all curtains for the mixed doubles pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Batra who were completely outdone by the Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-Ju and Cheng I-Ching.
Coming from the mixed doubles loss earlier in the day, Batra was in her attacking best against her British rival Tin-Tin Ho winning the Round 1 encounter 11-7, 11-6, 12-10, 11-9 in the women’s singles. For the fact, Tin-Tin is the first British paddler to qualify for the Olympics in 25 years.
The Brit was under pressure from the opening game as Batra played her angles well and forcing the 22-year-old to draw unforced errors and win the first two games. During the breather, Tin-Tin had a brief chat with her coach and put on a much-improved show in the third game pushing Batra harder.
.@manikabatra_TT wins in straight sets against Great Britain's Tin-Tin Ho in her first-round of #TableTennis Singles match.
We wish her all the best for the next round!#Cheer4India pic.twitter.com/3jk6BCj9j0
— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) July 24, 2021
Trailing 7-10 at one stage, Batra composed herself to make a strong comeback saving three game points to wrap up the game. The fourth game was similar to the previous one, but the Indian showed why she is the best ranked Asian in Tokyo to take away the match from the jaws of the Briton to sail in the next round.
Batra will now face Ukraine’s Margaryta Pesotska, a former European Championships silver medallist, in the second round. On the other hand, making her Olympics debut, Mukherjee came from behind to down Sweden’s Linda Bergström to win 4-3.
The Kolkata-born girl looked a tad nervous initially conceding the opening game 5-11 before making it one-all securing a hard-fought 11-9 victory in the next. However, the 2018 Commonwealth team gold medallist and two-time national champion, Mukherjee went down fighting in the next two sets 11-13 and 9-11.
An amazing show of grit and persistence by @sutirthamukher4, who made a flurry of comebacks to get past Sweden's Linda Bergstroem in her opening match of #TableTennis women's singles category | 5-11, 11-9, 11-13, 9-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-5#Cheer4India #Tokyo2020 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/uZamnq3WBw
— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) July 24, 2021
But Mukherjee had no plans to let go. With personal coach Soumyadeep Roy on the sidelines, Mukherjee played the best table tennis of her career to pocket the next three games 11-3, 11-9, 11-5 to win the game. She will next play Portugal’s Yu Fu.
However, touted as India’s best bet in table tennis, the Sharath Kamal-Batra duo went down 8-11, 6-11, 5-11, 4-11 in just 27 minutes at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gym Table in the Round of 16. India needed to win three matches to assure themselves a medal in the mixed doubles event.
