Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee cruise for the next round in women’s singles
Manika wasted no time and won the match in four straight games and never seemed fazed by Tin-Tin Ho during the whole match. Manika Batra cruised past Briitain's Tin-Tin Ho for the next round in women's singles event here at Tokyo Metropolitan Gym -- Table 1 on Saturday. Manika wasted no time and won the match in four straight games 11-7, 11-6, 12-10, 11-9 in exactly 30 minutes.
The Indian paddler never seemed fazed by Tin-Tin Ho during the whole match. The big forehand of experienced Manika never gave Tin-Tin Ho a chance in the match to stage a come-back. The Indian paddler didn’t seem to be fascinated by Tintinho throughout the match. Experienced Manika’s big forehand didn’t give Tintinho a chance to stage a comeback.
Manika’s victory, along with Achanta Sharath Kamal, failed to make it to the next round in a mixed doubles event after losing 0-4 to Chinese Taipei’s Yun Julin and Chen Yi Ching teams. It will boost morale. Chinese Taipei’s Lin and Chen wiped out the Indian duo in just 24 minutes in the Best 7 Game Contest.
As for Mukherjee, her match continued into her seventh set against Sweden’s Linda Bergström in the first round of her women’s singles match. She won a struggling 4-3 victory with an amazing comeback in the match.
In Tokyo, Sutirtha will be competing only in women’s singles and faces Linda Bergstrom from Sweden, a higher-ranked player. The rivals met once before in a world team tournament in Portugal last year. When Linda defeated Sutirtha in that meeting, it also ended India’s ambitions during the 2020 ITTF World Team Qualification tournament held in Gondomar.
Meeting Linda, now World No. 70, for the second time will be tough for Sutirtha. The Indian will face Yu Fu from Portugal (No. 55) in the second round and much tougher Mima Ito of Japan (No. 30) in the third. Sutirtha has also posted facile wins over the likes of Patricia Solja and Cheng I Ching (both in the 2019 UTT while playing for U Mumba) and against Romanian World top-20 player Bernadette Szocs in the Gondomar tournament.
