indian-paddlers-lead-in-women-s-team-ro-16-at-olympics

Indian women paddlers Sreeja Akula, Archana, and Manika Batra secured 2-0 lead against Romania, in the table tennis women’s team RO-16 event at Paris Olympics. 

The overall match was divided in five parts, Match one was played as doubles between Sreeja and Archana from India and Romania’s Elizabeth Samara and Adina Diaconu. Batra was scheduled to play singles against Romania in Match two. 

In the first round of the RO-16, India takes the easy lead against Romania’s Adina and Elizabeth by 11-9, 12-10, 11-7. Sreeja and Archana dominated the match right from the beginning and took the straight set wins in the match 1. 

Manika Batra, quickly followed the footsteps of the young Indian duo and took the lead against Bernadette Szocs in Match 2 by 11-5, 11-7, 11-7. India is now at 2-0 lead against Romania.

 

In Match 3, Romania's Elizabeth played singles against Sreeja, and fought her way back to win against the Indian by 11-6. 

 

The fate continues in the match, as Sreeja loses to Elizabeth in the following four more sets by 8-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-6, 11-8 helping Romania to make a comeback, but not for long. 

 

As the match continued, for its part four, what seems like the win of the oponent turned into a draw of 2-2 as Kamath, trailed her way back in the match by wining two sets and brought the overall game to an equalizer. 

 

Manika Batra, brought her forgotten charm in the last match, numbered five and does her best by leading India into quarters. Her class and her experience spoke at the time when she did not drop a single game in the entire match-haul of three sets. Unequalled with her play she managed to won against Romania's Diaconu by 5-11, 9-11, 9-11.

 

India became the first country to reach quarters in table tennis at Paris Olympics. The team will playe its quarters against USA on Tuesday. 

 

Last week, both Manika and Sreeja scripted table tennis history by becoming the first Indian players to reach the round of 16 in the individual event at the Olympics. The two, however, could not progress beyond that stage, losing to higher-ranked opponents.