World tt c’ships: Paddlers fizzle out but Paris trip on cards

Busan, February 21

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The Indian men’s and women’s teams came up short in the pre-quarterfinals of the World Table Tennis Championships here today but their performance, in all likelihood, will be enough to send them to the Paris Olympics. The Manika Batra-led women’s team lost 1-3 to Chinese Taipei while the men were blown away by South Korea for the second time in the competition, losing 0-3.

The event offered Olympics quotas to the quarterfinalists but the Indian teams are likely to make the cut through their world rankings. The final announcement will be made on March 5 after including the points from the

World Championships. The women’s team is currently ranked 17th and the men 15th. “In all likelihood, the men and women have qualified for the Olympics but we will have to wait till March for the official announcement,” said a Table Tennis Federation of India official.

In the women’s pre-quarterfinals, Manika put India ahead with a tense 11-8, 8-11, 4-11, 11-9, 11-9 win over Chen Szu-Yu. Sreeja Akula was blanked 11-6, 11-9, 11-5 by world No. 10 Cheng I-Ching in the second singles before Ayhika Mukherjee failed to match the power of Li Yu-Jhun, losing 10-12, 13-15, 11-9, 2-11.

In her second singles, the 36th-ranked Manika tried her best against Cheng, an opponent she had stunned last year. But on this occasion, Cheng came well prepared to take on the Indian who uses the pimpled rubber on the backhand, winning 12-10, 5-11, 11-9, 11-5.

The men’s team could not do much against the might of the Koreans. Harmeet Desai and Sharath Kamal managed to take a game each off Jang Woojin and Lim Jonghoon, respectively, before G Sathiyan was blanked by Lee Sang Su.