Table Tennis: India's campaign ends in first round

India's women paddlers Mouma Das and Manika Batra made their exit from the Rio Olympics after losing their preliminary round singles matches to higher-ranked rivals in the table tennis competition in Rio de Janeiro, on Saturday.

World no. 150 Mouma's challenge was lukewarm and short-lived as the Indian veteran, in her second Olympics, lost to world No 58 Daniela Dodean Monteiro of Romania 2-11, 7-11, 7-11, 3-11.

Debutant Manika, on the other hand, put up a good fight before going down to her 60th-ranked Polish rival Katarzyna Franc-Grzybowska 2-4 (12-10 6-11 12-14 11-8 4-11 12-14 in 48 minutes in another preliminary round clash.

It is the first time that four Indian paddlers have qualified for the Summer Games.

It was no different in the men's section as India’s national champion Sharath Kamal lost his 1st round match 8-11, 12-14, 11-9, 6-11, 8-11 to Romania’s Adrian Crisan.

World No 68 Soumyajit Ghosh also made a first round exit losing to Padasak Tanviriyavechakul by 1-4 margin in 35 minutes.

Left-handed Padasak, a medallist at the South East Asian Games won 11-8 11-6 12-14 11-6 13-11 in a well-contested match which was more closely fought than the scoreline would suggest.

India's campaign in table tennis has now come to an end with all the four paddlers bowing out in the first round.

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