Tokyo Olympics: Indian paddlers Manika Batra & Sutirtha Mukherjee cruise to second round

Ace Indian table tennis player, Manika Batra cruised to an assured and confident victory in her first-round match against Great Britain's Tin-Tin Ho to qualify for the second round, also World No. 98 Sutirtha Mukherjee, in her debut Olympic, displayed an impressive performance to knock out Sweden's higher-ranked Linda Bergstrom in the women's singles event at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday.

Batra did not look fazed at all and barely broke a sweat as she won the match in four straight games 11-7, 11-6, 12-10, 11-9 in exactly 30 minutes. She used the experience of her big forehand as she gave no chance to Tin-Tin Ho in the match to try and make a comeback.

Thrilling comeback from Mukherjee

On the other hand, Mukherjee won in a seven-game thriller, 11-5, 9-11, 13-11, 11-9, 3-11, 9-11, 5-11. Linda was dominating from the start and closed put the first game in under six minutes with an 11-5 win and Mukherjee looked completely out of it as she seemed nervous and shaky. In the second set, the latter made a comeback and won it by 9-11. The set was a nailbiter going to 13-11 in Linda's favour and the fourth set was also won by her by 11-9.

Things were looking bleak for Mukherjee as she was 3-1 down but she did not give up and fought her way back into the match to win the remaining three sets 3-11, 9-11 and 5-11 respectively.

Win a morale booster for Manika after a first-round loss in the mixed doubles

The win provides great motivation and boosted Batra's morale after she and her partner Achanta Sharat Kamal failed to qualify for the next round in their mixed doubles event after suffering a heavy 0-4 defeat against the Chinese Taipei team of Yun Ju Lin and Cheng I Ching. The Indian duo had to make all chances count against a superior opponent but they couldn't do so after leading 5-1 and 5-3 in the first two games. In the end, it was a comfortable 11-8 11-6, 11-5, 11-4 win for the Chinese Taipei duo.

The power of 19-year-old Lin and 29-year-old Ching was too much to handle for the Indian pairing of Sharath and Manika, who came into the Olympics having won the qualifying competition.

Manika will face Ukraine's Margaryta Pesotska while Sutirtha Mukherjee will take on Fu Yu of Portugal in the second round of the women's singles table tennis event for the Tokyo Olympics and both the Indian paddlers will be hoping to grab a medal in an event the country has previously never won a medal in.

(Image Credits: AP)