Durban, May 24: Star Indian paddler Manika Batra fought hard before going down to Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico 3-4 in the round of 32 at the World Table Tennis Championships here on Wednesday. Up against Diaz, ranked 13th in the ITTF chart, world number 39 Manika took the first game before her opponent stepped on the pedal. It was fairly balanced till the sixth game with both the players locked at 3-3. World Table Tennis Championships 2023: Manika Batra Beats Wong Xin Ru, Enters Third Round in Women’s Singles.

But Diaz ran away with the decider as Manika lost 3-4 (6-11, 12-10, 11-9, 6-11, 13-11, 9-11, 11-3), to book her place in the last 16. Even though she lost, Manika managed to ensure the best result for India in singles competition here.

Later in the day, Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran will play the English pair of Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford in the men's doubles round of 16.

The Indian combination had defeated the same English duo en route to a gold medal in last year's Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Manika will then pair up with Archana Kamath and take on Japan's Hina Hayata and Mima Ito in the round of 16 of women's doubles.

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