India’s Run in Single’s category Ends in Singapore Smash with Manika Batra’s Defeat

India’s chances in the singles category came to an end at the Singapore Smash 2023 table tennis tournament with the country’s ace table tennis player in the women’s category Manika Batra’s defeat.

Earlier Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost their respective men’s singles matches on Saturday.

Manika Batra went down in the fight against Sweden’s Linda Bergstrom. The hard-fought duel between both players lasted for 52 minutes. In the end, Manika lost the match by 3-2 (12-10, 6-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-13).

Manika Batra will now partner with G Sathiyan in the mixed doubles match on Monday. The Indian pair will face Singapore’s Chew Zhe Yu Clarence and Jian Zeng.

Manika Batra will also team up with Archana Kamath in the women’s doubles. Both the pairs had received a first-round bye and will be starting the tournament from the second round.

Earlier, in the men’s doubles, the Indian pair of Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar lost to Argentina’s Gaston Alto and Horacio Cifuentes.

Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar had earlier failed to get past the qualifying round in men’s singles.