Manika Batra in action. (Source : Olympic khel / Twitter)The Indian women’s team’s campaign at the World Table Tennis Championship ended with a 0-3 pre-quarterfinals loss to Chinese Taipei.
The trio of Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula and Diya Chitale lost their respective singles to concede the Round of 16 tie. Manika, whose form has been patchy throughout the tournament, was no match to the world number 22 Chen Szu-Yu as the Indian succumbed to a disappointing 0-3 (7-11, 9-11, 3-11) defeat.
With India trailing 0-1, Birmingham Commonwealth Games mixed doubles gold medallist Sreeja couldn’t get past world number 35 Ching I-Ching and went down 1-3 (8-11, 11-5 6-11, 9-11). Chitale fought hard and came close to giving India its first win in the tie but the teenager lost to experienced Liu Hsing-Yin 2-3 (6-11, 11-9, 11-9, 8-11 7-11).
The Indian team had defeated Czech Republic and Egypt while going down to Germany in the group stage. The Indian men’s team will take on China in the pre-quarterfinals on Thursday