WTT Contender: Manika starts with wins, Sharath ousted

Manika Batra headlined an impressive Indian performance at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender Goa, winning her three matches across categories, in Panaji on Wednesday.

However veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal's campaign ended in the opening round itself even as his younger compatriots notched up wins in their respective events.

In the morning session, Sharath and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost their men's doubles pre quarter-final match to Koreans Jaehyun An and Seungmin Cho 1-3 (6-11, 7-11, 11-7, 8-11).

Then in the final match of the day, rising Kazakh star Kirill Gerassimenko defeated the reigning Commonwealth Games champion in straight games (3-0: 11-8,11-7,11-8) to break Indian hearts. Sathiyan however won his men's singles opening round encounter against countryman Harmeet Desai. The scoreline was 11-4, 10-12, 13-11 and 11-9 in Chennai man's favour.

Manika, the highest ranked Indian in women's singles, got off to a flying start early in the first session, defeating 152nd ranked Englishwoman Ho Tin-Tin 3-0 (11-4,11-8,11-5).

She then partnered Archana to a hard-fought 3-2 (8-11,9-11,11-5,11-6,12-10) win over the Hong Kong, China, pairing of Li Ching Wan and Zhu Chengzhu, after being 0-2 down at one stage to the qualifiers.

Finally, in the evening session, her pairing with Sathiyan prevailed over the Korean pair of Lim Jonghoon and Shin Yubin in four games (3-1: 11-7,3-11,11-6,11-6) in a mixed doubles match.

"Today, I won my singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Mixed doubles were really tough as we have lost against them twice before. But this time we won, and I am really happy with that win.

"Let's see what happens in this tournament. I'll give my 100% and my best for my country and for myself," Manika signed off.