Mouma, Manika bow out after preliminary round defeats

Indian women paddlers Mouma Das and Manika Batra made their exit from the Rio Olympics after losing their preliminary round singles matches to higher-ranked rivals in the Table Tennis competition here today.

World no 150 Mouma's challenge was lukewarm and short-lived as the Indian veteran, in her second Olympics, lost to world No 58 Daniela Dodean Monteiro of Romania 2-11, 7-11, 7-11, 3-11.

Debutant Manika, on the other hand, put up a good fight before going down to her 60th-ranked Polish rival Katarzyna Franc-Grzybowska 2-4 (12-10 6-11 12-14 11-8 4-11 12-14 in 48 minutes in another preliminary round clash.

In the men's singles, Sharath Kamal and Soumyajit Ghosh will play their first round matches later in the day.

It is the first time that four Indian paddlers had qualified for the Summer Games.