Durban: India's run in the World Table Tennis Championships came to an end on Wednesday. The same was confirmed with Manika Batra and Archana Kamath bowing out of the Women's doubles event. The Indian duo succumbed to a defeat to Hina Hayata and Mima Ito of Japan 8-11, 6-11, 7-11 in the pre-quarterfinals. Earlier on Wednesday, Manika had already bowed out of the singles event.
Manika fought hard before going down to Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico 3-4 in the round of 32 at the World Table Tennis Championships. Up against Diaz, ranked 13th in the world, world number 39 Manika took the first game before her opponent stepped on the pedal. It was fairly balanced till the sixth game with both the players locked at 3-3.
But Diaz ran away with the decider as Manika lost 3-4 (6-11, 12-10, 11-9, 6-11, 13-11, 9-11, 11-3), to book her place in the last 16.
Even though she lost, Manika managed to ensure the best result for India in singles competition in this event. However, her hopes of a medal cannot be fulfilled and she would now have to wait for the next edition of the competition to make her dream true.
In the men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals, Sharath Kamal and G. Sathiyan lost to the English pair of Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford in four matches. The Indian duo would be disappointed as they got the better of the same opponents when they had clinched the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year and would have hoped to replicate a similar result on this occasion but that wasn't to be.
The mixed doubles pair of Manika and Sathiyan had already bowed out after losing in the pre-quarterfinals to the Swedish pair of Truls Moregardh and Christina Kallberg 11-5, 8-11, 8-11, 10-12.
(With Inputs from PTI)