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Manika Batra of India became the first Indian woman to win a medal at the ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup tournament on Saturday, defeating world No.6 Hina Hayata of Japan in the women’s singles bronze medal match here.
It was India’s third medal of the continental competition. Chetan Baboor was the only Indian table tennis player to win an Asian Cup medal before Manika, with silver in 1997 and bronze in 2000.
Manika, India’s top-ranked female table tennis player at world No. 44, defeated Hina, the 2021 Table Tennis World Cup bronze medalist, 4-2 in the playoff to determine third place at the Huamark Indoor Stadium here.
Manika had earlier lost in the semifinals to Tokyo Olympic Games bronze medalist Mima Ito of Japan. In a close match, the world No.5 Japanese player defeated Manika Batra 4-2 (8-11, 11-7, 7-11, 6-11, 11-8, 7-11).
Batra, 27, had earlier defeated world No.23 Chen Szu Yu of Chinese Taipei in a thrilling quarterfinal to become the tournament’s first Indian woman to reach the last four. She had also pulled off a major upset in the first round against world No.7 Chen Xingtong of China.
Manika, after clinching the bronze medal, said, “I am so happy to win the bronze medal in this Asian cup. This is really a big victory for me, defeating top players and it was so wonderful playing and fighting against them. I will continue this hard work and will give my best for my future tournaments. Just keep supporting and cheering for me Like always. Thank you everyone for being there for me.”
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, India’s top-ranked men’s singles player at world No.39, and Achanta Sharath Kamal, India’s national champion ranked 44th, were both eliminated in the first round of men’s singles.
Source:IANS
