Table Tennis: Manika, Sreeja advance into final round at Doha

Doha, March 2

Star paddler Manika Batra and young Sreeja Akula moved to the final round of the women’s singles qualifiers at the WTT Contender after winning their respective matches here on Tuesday.

The world No. 150 from Hyderabad, Sreeja prevailed over world No. 74 Vega Paulina of Chile before she sent packing Thailand’s 87th-ranked Orawan Paranang 11-5 11-5 11-6 in the third round.

She will now take on Russia’s Mariia Tailakova in the final round. Tailakova entered the last round with a 14-12 11-8 11-8 win over India’s Archana Kamath.

Living up to her reputation, Commonwealth Games gold medallist Manika got the better of Romania’s Irina Ciobanu 11-7 15-13 11-8 in the third round of qualifiers and will face Ganna Gaponova of Ukraine in the last round.

Earlier in the final round matches of mixed doubles qualifiers, Indian pair of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Sutirtha Mukherjee grabbed a spot in the main draw after an  11-5 11-7 11-5 victory against Puerto Rico’s Daniel Gonzalez and Melanie Diaz. However, the country’s other mixed doubles pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra failed to take advantage of an early lead and lost 11-9 11-13 11-13 3-11 to Russia’s Alexander Shibaev and Polina Mikhailova.

Harmeet Desai also suffered an 11-9 11-7 9-11 8-11 2-11 defeat against Russia’s Alexander Shibaev in the third-round match of the men’s singles qualifiers. PTI