Olympics: Manika leads India to table tennis quarters

Star player Manika Batra led from the front as India prevailed over higher-ranked Romania 3-2 in a thrilling tie to enter the quarter-finals of the women's table tennis team competition at the Paris Olympics on Monday.

Leading 2-0, India saw Romania fight back to draw level but Manika delivered in the decider.

Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath started the proceedings with a 11-9, 12-10, 11-7 win over Adina Diaconu and Elizabeta Samara in a doubles match.

Manika made short work of higher-ranked Bernadette Szocs in a 11-5, 11-7, 11-7 victory as India took a comfortable 2-0 lead in the tie against their fourth-seeded opponents. India are seeded 11th in the competition.

In the second singles match however, things did not go in India's favour as Sreeja went down 2-3 (11-8 4-11 11-7 6-11 8-11) to European champion Samara after winning the first game.

Sreeja's defeat paved the way for a face-off between Archana and Bernadette, the latter winning the first game 11-5, but the Indian bagged the second 11-8 to restore parity. However, Bernadette won the next two games 11-7, 11-9 to clinch the match and send the tie to the decider.

Manika then blanked Adina 3-0 (11-5, 11-9, 11-9) to seal the tie in India's favour.

"The first match was very crucial. I think we pulled out a very good match. We share a very good bonding and we trust each other. We are really happy that we won this match. Let's focus on quarters and like today we will give our best in quarters," Sreeja said.

"Now we just prepare, we learn whatever mistakes we have done, we learn from this and just prepare for the next match."

India will be up against either the USA or Germany in the quarter-finals.

Japan, Poland, France and Thailand are also on the same side of the draw.

Last week, both Manika and Sreeja scripted table tennis history by becoming the first Indian players to reach the round of 16 in the individual event at the Olympics. The two, however, could not progress beyond that stage, losing to higher-ranked opponents.

Sreeja had lost 0-4 to world number one Yingsha Sun of China in the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles.

"I was a little upset only for one day, but then again I had to give my best for my country and for all of them who are supporting us. So yeah, I think I just gave my best today.

"I was not thinking of winning or losing. Of course, we wanted to win, but yeah, at that time I was just giving my best for every point I was playing with Bernie and Adina.

"So I am happy with my performance, how I played and of course how we all played and we started really well with the doubles and that gave me confidence," Sreeja concluded.

• THE OLYMPICS, 2024