Sreeja Ajula and Diya Chitale registered impressive wins but star paddler Manika Batra lost both her fixtures as Indian women lost 2-3 to Germany in their ITTF World Team Championships 2022 opener in Chengdu on Saturday. (More Sports News)
The men's team, on the other hand, blanked Uzbekistan 3-0 in its Group 2 opening clash. Commonwealth Games medallist Batra, ranked 44 in the world, was no match to the world number eight Ying Han, who breezed past the Indian 3-0 (11-3, 11-1, 11-2) to give her side a 1-0 lead.
World number 77 Sreeja then upstaged the higher-ranked Nina Mittelham 3-0 (11-9, 12-10, 11-7) to put India back in the contest. The 122-ranked Diya then gave India the lead with a hard-fought 3-1 (11-9, 8-11, 11-6, 13-11) win over Sabine Winter.
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Asian Games medallist Batra made a strong start to her second match but couldn't take advantage of the winning momentum as she was handed a 1-3 (11-7, 6-11, 7-11, 8-11) defeat by world number 14 Mittelham as the fixture was tied at 2-2.
However, the 24-year-old Sreeja too was no match to the mighty Ying, the 2016 Rio Olympics team silver medallist, as she also surrendered meekly to the German 0-3 (3-11, 5-11, 4-11) in the decider. Indian women are placed third in Group 5.
Earlier, the men's team was hardly tested by its Uzbek rivals. Harmeet Desai gave India the lead with a 3-0 (11-9, 11-9, 11-1) win over Elmurod Kholikov. G Sathiyan then doubled the lead with a similar 3-0 (11-3, 11-6, 11-9) victory against Abdulaziz Anorboev.
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Manav Thakkar sealed the fixture after defeating Shokhrukh Iskandar 3-0 (11-8, 11-5, 11-5). The win puts India in third place in Group 2 behind Germany and France. The Indian men will next face Germany while the women will take on Czech Republic on Sunday.
