Indian Women’s TT Team Ecstatic on Winning Their First Gold at CWG

The Indian Women’s table tennis team react after clinching their first gold at the Commonwealth Games.

Indian Women’s table tennis team win their first-ever Commonwealth Games gold.

(Photo: PTI)

The Indian women’s table tennis team won its first-ever Commonwealth Games gold medal in Gold Coast on Sunday, 8 April. The Indians defeated Singapore 3-1 in the final.

The World Number 58 Manika Batra put India in the lead after winning the first singles match 11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7 against World Number 4 Tianwei Feng. Singapore pulled one back when Mengyu Yu beat Madhurika Patkar 13-11, 11-2, 11-6 in the second singles.

It means a lot, like I am shivering right now, that we won a gold medal, first time in the history, so I’m really happy, and I am happy with my team that they supported all the team members, yeah, and I’m happy. Amazing.

Manika Batra, Indian table tennis player

However, Madhurika Patkar and Mouma Das put India in the lead again after defeating Yihan Zhou and Mengyu Yu 11-7, 11-6, 8-11, 11-7 in the doubles match.

Finally, Manika Batra sealed the deal with a 11-7, 11-4, 11-7 victory over World Number 100 Yihan Zhou in the fourth singles.

Things like pressure, I didn’t feel it. Even though they (Singapore) were very good, we just played our game fully and total. And we knew that we had to give our best in doubles. Because if we win the doubles, the pressure would be on them, as we had already beaten their best player. So that moment, that doubles win, was very important for us.

Madhurika Patkar, Indian table tennis player

The Indian women's table tennis team equalled its best-ever performance at the Commonwealth Games by reaching the final, earlier in the day.

India defeated England 3-0 to set up a summit clash against favourites Singapore. It was the second time the women's team had made a CWG final, having made its maiden appearance in the 2010 edition in Delhi.