Paris 2024 Olympics: Sreeja Akula Follows Manika Batra, Eliminated From Women’s Singles By World No. One Yingshaw

Sreeja Akula, who was celebrating her 26th birthday,  made the heartbreaking pre-quarterfinals exit from the women’s singles table tennis event after seasoned campaigner Manika Batra drew curtains on her campaign at the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympics on Tuesday. Despite giving a valiant fight to the world's number one Chinese Yingshaw Sun, Sreeja suffered a defeat with a 4-0 margin.

Paris (France):India’s challenge in the table tennis event came to an end following the ace paddlers Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula’s pre-quarterfinal exit from the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympics here on Wednesday.

Manika, the first Indian to reach the round of 16 of the table tennis competition at the Olympics, surrendered meekly against world number 13 Japanese Miu Hirano in the preliminary encounter. The same was the story with Sreeja Akula, who joined Manika in the feat and secured a heartbreaking defeat after a dream run until then. However, Sreeja, a birthday girl, fought the world's number one Yingshaw Sun tremendously as the Chinese had to fight for every single point.

It was the first time that Indian paddlers reached the pre-quarterfinals and were competing for a place in the quarterfinal berth. Despite their defeat, Manika and Sreeja must be proud of themselves for achieving the feat by displaying their best game until the defeat.

Sreeja produced a valiant fight against Sun before losing 10-12 10-12 8-11 3-11 in her Round of 16.

Sreeja challenged her Chinese opponent ferociously in the first two games but could not hold on to the lead.The 26-year-old was leading the second game with five points and could have sealed the game two to make the score 1-1, but she then conceded a game by allowing the world number one to score six points in a row.

Earlier in the day, the world ranked 28th Manika went down 1-4 (6-11 9-11 14-12 8-11 6-11) against the Japanese, who constantly changed their strategies in the match.

The 29-year-old lost healthy leads in games two and three and despite that she ended up on the losing side as Miu switched gears to prevent the Indian from scripting more history, becoming the first Indian to reach the quarterfinals stage in a table tennis singles event.

For the first time, Indian players will now compete in the team events at the Summer Games. The team events will commence on August 5.

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