Indian women’s team crashed out of the table tennis quarterfinals after suffering a 3-2 loss at the hands of Malaysia in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Saturday.
The Indian paddlers hopes of defending the title they had won at Gold Coast four years ago, thus, came to an end at the hand of the Malaysians.
India had earlier qualified for the knockouts after topping Group 2 with identical 3-0 wins against South Africa, Fiji and Guyana resepctively.
The Indian women’s team suffered an early setback as the duo of Reeth Tennison and Sreeja Akula lost the doubles rubber 11-7, 11-6, 5-11, 11-6 to Malaysia’s Karen Lyne and Li Sian Alice Chang. The Malaysians looked in total control compared to the Indians, who lost the game and fell 1-0 behind.
Having lost their first match, India were in desperate need of a victory, and star paddler Manika Batra came to the rescue right on time. The 27-year-old overcame Ying Ho 11-8, 11-5, 8-11, 9-11, 11-3 in the women’s singles encounter to make it 1-1.
23-year-old Sreeja Akula then came back once again to thrash Li Sian Alice Chang 11-6, 11-6, 11-9 in the third match to give India the much needed 2-1 lead against their opponents.
However, India lost the plot once again as Manika Batra, who had earlier won a tight match against Ying Ho went down 11-6, 11-3, 11-9 against Karen Lyne in her second singles match in the quarterfinal.
With the scores tied at 2-2, it all came to down to Reeth Tennison, who had to face Ying Ho in the women’s singles decider. But the 26-year-old failed to take India into the semi-finals as she succumbed to 10-12, 11-8, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9 defeat against her Malaysian counterpart.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)