India’s Mouma Das, debutant Manika Batra crashed out in the first round of the women’s singles draw and Soumyajit Ghosh and Sharath Kamal bowed out in the first round of the men’s singles draw of the table tennis competition at the Rio Olympics on Saturday.
World number 150 Mouma failed to put up a fight against Romania’s Daniela Dodean Monteiro, as the Indian went down 2-11, 7-11, 7-11, 3-11.
This is Mouma’s second Olympic appearance after her debut in Athens 12 years ago. As a veteran paddler, Mouma was pipped to put up a strong fight but all hopes were dashed after her first round exit at the hands of Daniela.
Olympic debutant Manika gave a good fight but went down 2-4 to a superior 60th-ranked Katarzyna Franc-Grzybowska of Poland.
Manika lost 12-10, 6-11, 12-14, 11-8, 4-11, 12-14 to her opponent but will leave the Games with head held high because of her performance as a debutant.
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It was no different in the men’s section as world number 68 Soumyajit Ghosh also made a first round exit losing to Padasak Tanviriyavechakul by 1-4 margin in 35 minutes.
Left-handed Padasak, a medallist at the South East Asian Games won 11-8,11-6, 12-14 11-6, 13-11 in a well-contested match which was more closely fought than the scoreline would suggest.
And the other Indian in the men’s singles draw Sharath Kamal lost 8-11, 12-14, 11-9, 6-11, 8-11 to Romania’s Adrian Crisan.
(With inputs from IANS and PTI)
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