25 May,2023 10:42 AM IST | Durban | PTI
Manika Batra
Star paddler Manika Batra fought hard before going down to Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico 3-4 (11-6, 10-12, 9-11, 11-6, 11-13, 11-9, 3-11) in the Round of 32 as India's campaign ended at the World Table Tennis Championships here on Wednesday.
Up against Diaz, ranked 13th in the ITTF chart, World No. 39 Manika took the first game before her opponent stepped on the pedal. It was a fairly balanced tie till the sixth game with both the players locked at 3-3.
Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran then lost to English pair of Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford 3-1 (11-9, 8-11, 12-14, 10-12) to crash out in the Round of 16 of the men's doubles event.
The Indian combination had defeated the same English duo en route to a gold medal in last year's Birmingham Commonwealth Games. The women's doubles pair of Manika and Archana Kamath also lost in straight games 0-3 (8-11, 6-11, 7-11) to Japan's Hina Hayata and Mima Ito in the round of 16 to make an exit from the tournament.
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