India’s Manika Batra retires from singles

India’s challenge in the singles category Singapore Smash 2023 ended after Manika Batra crashed out of the women’s singles round of 64 at the Singapore Sports Hub on Sunday.

The loss of Manika Batra comes after that Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost his men’s singles match on Saturday.

Manika Batra fell 3-2 (12-10, 6-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-13) to Sweden’s Linda Bergstrom in a tough duel that lasted 52 minutes.

The Indian table tennis player opened strongly to win the first game 12-10 and take the lead of the contest. However, the Swede fought back to win the next two games to take the match 2-1.

Manika Batra took the fourth game 11-8 to stay in the match. In the decider, Manika Batra took the fight to Linda Bergstrom only to see the Swede win 11-13 in a tightly contested game, knocking out the Indian in the first round.

Manika Batra will now partner G Sathiya in the mixed doubles on Monday. The Indian pair will face Singaporeans Chew Zhe Yu Clarence and Jian Zeng.

Manika Batra will also play with Archana Kamath in the women’s doubles. Both pairs had a first-round bye and will start the tournament in the second round.

Earlier in the men’s doubles, the Indian pair of Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar were eliminated after losing 3-0 (11-4, 11-7, 11-6) to Argentina’s Gaston Alto and Horacio Cifuentes in the Round of 32 match. .

Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar previously failed to make it past the men’s singles qualifying round.