Indian qualifier Suthirta Mukherjee dug deep into her resources to tame German world number 58 Sabine Winter 4-3, while Manika Batra savoured an easy win in the women’s singles first round of the ITTF World Championships here on Tuesday.
Manika Batra
Budapest:
Manika beat Andrea Todorovic of Serbia 14-12, 11-5, 11-5, 11-8 in the Round of 64. Suthirta, who is ranked 502 in the world, used strong backhand counters to win 8-11, 17-15, 11-9, 5-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-6 against the 26-year-old German. The 23-year-old, who is ranked No. 3 in India, was part of the gold-winning women’s squad at the CWG in Gold Coast.
However, Archana Kamath and Madhurika Patkar bowed out of the women singles race. Manika, the world No. 56, was rusty in her opening game but picked up momentum to dispose her Serbian qualifier. She will meet Chen Szu-Yu of Taipei in her next round.
Archana lost 11-8, 11-8, 19-17, 8-11, 6-11, 7-11, 4-11 to Egypt’s Dina Meshref after leading 3-0. The energy-sapping third game, which Archana won 19-17, took its toll as the Indian could not stop the marauding Egyptian who picked up the gauntlet to emerge winner.
Madhurika began well but failed to sustain against Austria’s Amelie Solja as the world no. 65 downed the Indian 5-11, 11-9, 11-6, 8-11, 11-7, 13-11. Earlier in the day, Manika combined well with Archana to beat Konstantina Paridi and Aikaterini Toliou of Greece 11-5, 11-6, 11-6, 11-7 to enter the Round of 32 in women doubles.
However, the second Indian pair of Madhurika and Suthirtha lost to the Canadian-Spanish combine of Mo Zhang and Maria Xiao 2-11, 11-6, 13-15, 8-11, 8-11 to bow out. Among other doubles events, only the mixed pair of G Sathiyan and Archana entered pre-quarterfinals, beating Spaniards Alvaro Robles and Galia Dvorak 11-9, 11-4, 11-8, 11-13, 11-9.