Manika Batra, India’s highest-ranked player in the world, will need to find her form soon if India are to do well at the World Table Tennis Team Championships being held in Chengdu, China.
India were on the verge of a historic victory against World No. 5 Germany on Saturday, but Manika lost both her matches as Germany managed to win the tie 3-2.
While her 3-0 (11-3,11-1, 11-2) loss against World No. 8 Ying Han in the first match of the tie was understandable given Han’s experience at the top level, her match against Nina Mittelham was riddled with errors. Though she won the first game 11-7, she lost the next three 6-11, 7-11, 8-11.
India’s No. 1 and current senior national champion Sreeja Akula pulled off the biggest win of her career with a 3-0 (11-9, 12-10, 11-7) win over World No. 14 Mittelham in the second match of the tie.
19-year-old Diya Chitale, ranked 122 in the world, then put India a strong position to win the tie with a superb display of attacking table tennis to dominate World No. 46 Sabine Winter 3-1 (11-9, 11-8, 6-11, 13-11) to give India a 2-1 lead.
It was then down to Manika to win the tie for India by beating Mittelham, who was under pressure having lost to Sreeja in straight games. But Manika, who failed to win a single medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and the recently-concluded National Games, couldn’t manage to keep up with the intensity of the game as Germany level scores 2-2.
In the final match of the tie, Sreeja faced Han, who’s an expert defensive chopper. Han broke no sweat in finishing off the match 3-0 (11-3, 11-5, 11-4) to avoid an embarrassing defeat for Germany.
The women’s team take on the Czech Republic in their next group game on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, the Indian men’s team pulled off a dominating 3-0 win over Uzbekistan their first match. Harmeet Desai, G Sathiyan and Manav Thakkar won their singles matches without dropping a game. The men face next Germany on Sunday.
