Paris (France): India women's table tennis team consisting of Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, and Archana Kamath secured a berth in the ongoing 2024 Paris Olympics 2024 on Monday. In the pre-quarterfinal encounter, the women's team won 3-2 against the fourth-seeded Romanian side.
India's star paddlers duo of Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath formed a team and secured a comprehensive victory over their rivals Diaconu Adina and Samara Elizabeta by 3-0 (11-9, 12-10, 11-7).
In the second match, Manika Batra once again showed her class and emerged triumphant, dominating Szcos Bernadette in all three games. She won 11-5, 11-7, 11-7.
However, Sreeja faltered in the next round as she looked tired in playing bigger rallies. It seemed that Samara Elizabeta found out her weakness of playing backhand smashes and targeted that spot regularly and eventually emerged triumphant by 3-2 in the third match, keeping the hopes alive for the quarterfinal for her side.
Archana, who competed in the third game, lost the first set but then made a slight comeback winning the game 2. The Romanian rival pulled things back winning the third set, using her table smartly coupled with powerful smashes and won the back-to-back games to take the tie into the final game. The Romanian paddler won the third match 3-1 (11-5, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9).
Women's Team Round of 16 👇🏻#TableTennis🏓
— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) August 5, 2024
The Indian🇮🇳 team consisting of Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, and Archana Kamath defeats Romania 3-2 to advance to the Quarter-Finals.
Take a look at the results:
Sreeja/Archana defeated Adina Diaconu/Elizabeta Samara 11-9, 12-10,… pic.twitter.com/T7TsPOA957
And once again, the burden was on the shoulders of Manika to emerge victorious in the last game and help India secure a place in the semis. Manika is someone who always thrives under pressure and she proved it right on one more occasion. She won the first Game quite comprehensively with a margin of six points. Her opponent Bernadette gave a tough fight with the second game tied at 9-9 but faltered in the end as the Romanian failed to win game points. Similar was the tale in the third game with the game tied at 5-5 and then Batra didn't let her opponent come back in the game and won it by 11-8 in the end.
