Manika Batra loses both matches; men’s blank Uzbek

Manika Batra

Sreeja Akula and Diya Chitale registered impressive wins but star paddler Manika Batra lost both her fixtures as Indian women lost 2-3 to Germany in their ITTF World Team Championships opener here on Saturday.

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The men's team, on the other hand, blanked Uzbekistan 3-0 in its Group 2 opening clash. Commonwealth Games medallist Batra, ranked 44 in the world, was no match to the World No.8 Ying Han, who breezed past the Indian 3-0 to giver her side a 1-0 lead. World No.77 Sreeja then upstaged the higher-ranked Nina Mittelham 3-0 to put India back in the contest. The 122-ranked Diya then gave India the lead with a hard-fought 3-1 win over Sabine Winter. Asian Games medallist Batra couldn't take advantage of the winning momentum as she was handed a 1-3 defeat by World No.14 Mittelham as the fixture was tied at 2-2.

However, Sreeja, 24, too was no match to the mighty Ying, the 2016 Rio Olympics team silver medallist, as she also surrendered meekly to the German 0-3 (3-11 5-11 4-11) in the decider.

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