Paris Olympics: Sharath Kamal makes shock exit; Manika and Sreeja enter Round of 32 in TT

Paris: Indian table tennis veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal made a shock exit from the Paris Olympics men’s singles competition but star woman player Manika Batra started her campaign with a 4-1 thrashing of her opponent in a round of 64 match here on Sunday.

The 42-year-old Kamal, who was making his fifth Olympics appearance, lost 2-4 (12-10 9-11 6-11 7-11 11-8 10-12) to Deni Kozul of Slovenia ranked 86 places below him in a round of 64 match that lasted 53 minutes.

The Commonwealth Games champion Indian, ranked 40th in the world, won a tight first game but lost the next three to trail 1-3. He recovered and made it 2-3 but again lost a tight fourth game to bow out of the competition. His opponent is ranked 126th in the world.

The 29-year-old Manika, on the other hand, dominated Anna Hursey of Great Britain in her round of 64 women’s singles match that lasted 41 minutes.

The 2018 Commonwealth Games champion Manika, seeded 18th in the tournament and ranked 28th in the world, won 11-8 12-10 11-9 9-11 11-5 over Hursey, who is world number 103.

In the process, Manika equalled her feat at the Tokyo Olympics where she had become the first women’s table tennis player from India to make it to the round of 32 in singles.

The Delhi paddler was no match to her opponent as she raced to a 3-0 lead in 24 minutes and was on course for a 4-0 win. But Hursey made a comeback of sorts and won the fourth game.

However, Manika did not allow her lower-ranked opponent any room for a comeback as she pocketed the fourth game, and the match easily.
Manika faces 12th seed Prithika Pavade of France in the round of 32 match on July 31.

Earlier in the day, India’s top-ranked woman paddler Sreeja Akula entered the round of 32 with a clinical 4-0 win over Sweden’s Christina Kallberg.

Sreeja, who had created history by becoming the first Indian paddler to win a WTT Contender singles title, registered a 11-4, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8 victory in 30 minutes over the Swede.

The Indian had little trouble bagging the first set but was stretched in the second, and her rival continued to do that in the next two sets as well.

In the third set, Sreeja and Kallberg went neck-to-neck till 7-5, but the Indian found her bearings just in time to pocket it.

Sreeja made the early running in the fourth set, taking a 9-3 lead, but a few unforced errors and a couple of good smashes helped Kallberg narrow the lead to 9-7 and then to 10-8.

But a powerful unanswered forehand to the right corner of the table propelled Sreeja to the next round.