Manika Batra is keeping her head high at the World Table Tennis Championship taking place in Budapest, Hungary. She faced her fellow countrywoman Sreeja Akula in the quarter-final and won the close and tough encounter by 3-2 to make it to the Semi-Finals. She is also set to play the title match in mixed-doubles along with G Sathiyan.
The quarter-final was a close encounter and the result was possible in the last set with the scoreline reading of 7-11, 11-1, 8-11, 13-11, 11-6 and Manika Batra took the big stage to qualify for the semi-finals.
In the mixed doubles, it was an exceptional performance as Manika and Sathiyan got an easy win of 3-0 against Aliaksandr Khanin and Daria Trigolos Belarus by the scoreline of 11-6, 11-5, 11-4 and will face the Hungary duo of Nandor Ecseki and Doria Madarasz.
The Indian men’s doubles pairing of Manav Thakar along with Harmeet Desai were looking strong throughout the tournament but failed in the Semi-finals against Vladimir Sidorenko and Kirill Skachkov of Russia. They lost by 3-1 with scores of 11-9, 6-11, 11-9, 11-6. Manav was looking strong in the game with his great blocking and attacking skills, Though Harmeet made few mistakes during big rallies still, they gave a tough fight to the opponents. Few forehand attacks by Skchkov took the game away and the tournament ended for the Indian duo.
