Commonwealth Games gold medallist Manika Batra won two matches in India’s victory over Luxembourg in the women’s championship division of world team table tennis championship in Halmstad, Sweden on Thursday.
Manika lost the first game 7-11 to the higher-ranked Lian Xia Ni in her first match before bouncing back to win the next three 11-7, 11-8, 11-8.
Mouma Das, then, extended India’s lead with a four game win – 11-3, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9 – over Danielle Konsbruck.
Sarah De Nutte, ranked 61st in the world, then kept Luxembourg’s hopes alive when she downed Madhurika Patkar in four games.
But Manika beat Konsbruck in straight games in the fourth match to win the tie for India.
India is already out of contention for the round of 16 matches and were competing for the 13-24 positions. They will next play Hungary in the 13-20 positions.
Meanwhile, the men’s team, who are also out contention for the round of 16 matches, blanked Singapore 3-0 in their 13-24 play-offs. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Sanil Shetty won in four games over their Singaporean counterparts, while veteran Sharath Kamal beat Lucas Tan in three games.
The highlight of the match was Sathiyan defeating CWG champion Gao Ning, a win the Indian called one of the biggest wins of his career.
The Indian men will take on France in the 13-20 play-offs.
