Ahmedabad: India’s Manika Batra registered three successive wins even as Sharath Kamal’s hopes of a World Cup berth were quashed on a day of mixed results for the Indian contingent at the Asian Cup table tennis tournament in Ahmedabad.
Manika will cross swords with Japan’s Miu Hirano in the challenge round for a quarterfinal berth. Other than Sharath, Harmeet Desai’s challenge also ended tonight.
This was Sharath’s worst Asian Cup outing, having failed to win a single match in the group stage. Harmeet on the other hand showed some fight as he managed to win one out the three matches.
Manika, who is playing in her first Asian Cup, will have her task cut out against Hirano, who is seeded second in the tournament.
Manika had beaten 17-year-old Aia Mohamed of Qatar 13-11, 11-8, 11-7 in the morning. She later downed Neda Shasavari 11-5, 11-8, 11-6 before defeating Thailand’s Suthasini Sawettabut 11-8, 8-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-8 in a tense encounter.
Sharath first went down to Korea’s Lee Sangsu 0-3 in men singles. He was handed another loss in the second round to China’s Lin Gaoyuan. In the evening session he was edged by Mizutani, who prevailed 11-5, 11-3, 8-11, 11-8.
Qualifiers
Advanced to Quarter-finals
Women
Group A: Zhu Yuling (CHN), Doom Hoi Kem (HKG).
Group B: Liu Shiwen (CHN), Cheng I-Ching (TPE).
Group C: Kasumi Ishikawa (JPN), Chen Szu-Yu (TPE).
Men
Group A: Koki Niwa (JPN), Fan Zhendong (CHN).
Group B: Chuang Chih-Yuan (TPE), Jeong Sanguen (KOR).
Group C: Jun Mizutani (JPN), Lin Gaoyuan (CHN).
Playoff Challenge
Women: Miu Hirano (JPN) vs Manika Batra (IND); Lee Ho Ching (HKG) vs Su Hyowon (KOR).
Men: Noshad Alamiyan (IRI) vs Lee Sangsu (KOR), Nima Alamian (IRI) vs Chen Chien-An (TPE).