Jeddah (Saudi Arabia): Star Indian paddler Manika Batra continued her brilliant form in the ongoing Saudi Smash tournament defeating world number 14 Nina Mittleham of Germany on Wednesday and stormed into the quarterfinal of the tournament.
Manika outplayer her German rival in three straight games 3-0 (11-6, 11-9, 11-7) to cruise into round of 8.
Manika started dominantly in the first set and bagged it by 11-6 a a result. Nina tried to carve a comeback in the second set but Manika held her nevers and emerged triumphant in a close contest by 11-9. The Indian paddler continued her momentum and stepped into the Quarter-final of the competition.
This is Manika’s first-ever victory over Nina in four meetings between the two athletes. She will now square off against Hina Hayata of Japan for a berth in the semi-final. Earlier, Manika had registered a shock win against world number two Wang Manyu of China in the second round.
Sreeja Akula surpassed Manika recently to attain the status of being no.1 Indian female but the latter is all set to regain her place at the top following her stellar run in Jeddah. Manika remains the only India’s representative as all other doubles’ pairs including Harmeet Desai- Yashaswini Ghorpade, Ayhika Mukherjee-Sutirtha Mukherjee, and Manav Thakkar-Manush have already exited and so the nation will hope that she will win the tournament.
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