New Delhi, 26 October (Hindustan Reporter). Indian table tennis player Manika Batra entered the quarter-finals of the WTT Champions event by defeating world number 14 Bernadette Szoks in Montpellier, France on Friday night.
World number 30 Batra won a closely fought match 3-1 (11-9, 6-11, 13-11, 11-9) against the eighth-seeded Romanian player in 29 minutes.
The Indian player saved two game points in the third game. Trailing 4-7 in the fourth game, the Szoks took a time-out. However, Batra countered a late comeback from her 29-year-old opponent and converted her second match point to win the match 6-5. In this way his score in head-to-head record became 6-5.
Batra had also defeated Szoks in India's 3-2 win in the pre-quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics. The Indian player, who created history by becoming the first player from the country to reach the round of 16 in singles at the Olympics in the French capital, will next face China's Qian Tianyi on Saturday.
World number 21 Qian defeated top seed and compatriot Wang Yidi 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 13-11) in her round of 16 match.
Batra started her campaign with an impressive 3-0 (11-4, 11-8, 12-10) win over Lily Zhang of USA.
The other Indian in the draw, Sreeja Akula, suffered a 3-2 (6-11, 11-7, 11-1, 8-11, 11-8) defeat to world number 13 Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico in the first round. Had to face.
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