Manika Batra's Olympic journey ends; India's challenge in Women's category finishes

Manika Batra's Tokyo Olympics journey in Table Tennis finally came to an end after suffering defeat in the third round against Austria's Sofia Polcanova. The Indian lost the match 8-11,2-11,5-11,7-11. With Batra's defeat in the third round, India's challenge in the Women's category at the Olympics ends. Earlier Sutirtha Mukherjee also bowed out of the women's singles event after losing her Round 2 match against Portugal's Fu. Fu Yu defeated Mukherjee 4-0 with the match lasting for just 23 minutes.

Manika Batra knocked out of Tokyo Olympics

Batra once again made a slow start to her third-round match with Polcanova taking a four-point lead against her Indian opponent. The Indian paddler fought hard and cut down the deficit to just one point (8-9) as she threatened to come level with the Austrian.  Polcanova pulled off two big points to take the first game 11-8. The second game was no different as Batra had to do all the catching up once again. The Austrian however close out the game 11-2. Polcanova just never allowed Batra to settle in the match and went on easily claim the third and fourth game 11-5 and 11-7 to reach the fourth round. The 26-year-old had earlier made history by becoming the first Table Tennis player to reach third of the singles event. 

Batra had earlier made headline for refusing to take coaching from the national coach ahead of her Round 1 match. Manika had requested India's chef-de-mission BP Baishya to allow the field of play (FOP) access for her personal coach Sanmay Paranjape. But the table tennis team leader for the Indian contingent MP Singh said that the FOP access for Manika's personal coach was not granted and the federation has to see what to do when these types of situations arise next time. He had said "We are not against players but she should tell this to the government. Last-minute her personal coach got approval to travel to Tokyo but FOP access was not granted to him," He also added, "She refused to take guidance from the national coach Soumyadeep. She said 'I don't want him on my bench to guide me'. I intervened but she was not ready."

Indian paddlers performance in the Tokyo Olympics so far

Achanta Sharath Kamal is India's last hope to win a medal in the Table Tennis competition. The Veteran player entered Round 3  of the singles competition after beating his Portuguese rival Tiago Apolonia 4-2 in the Round 2 clash on Monday. Earlier India's 2nd-ranked men's singles player Gnanasekaran Sathiyan was knocked out in the 2nd round after receiving a bye in the first round. Sathiyan lost to Hong Kong's Lam Siu Hang. Kamal and Batra were India's best bet in the mixed doubles category, however, the pair were ousted as early as the Round of 16 losing 0-4 to World No. 1 pairing of Lin Yun Ju and Cheng I Ching.

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