Manika advances, Archana bows out

Indian qualifier Suthirta Mukherjee defeated German world number 58 Sabine Winter 4-3 while Manika Batra savoured an easy win in the women's singles first round of the World Table Tennis Championships here on Tuesday.

CWG gold medallist Manika beat Andrea Todorovic of Serbia 14-12, 11-5, 11-5, 11-8, in the round of 64.

Suthirta, who is ranked 502 in the world, used strong backhand counters to win 8-11, 17-15, 11-9, 5-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-6 against the attacking 26-year-old German.

The 23-year-old, who is ranked No 3 in India, was part of the gold-winning women's squad at the CWG in Gold Coast.

However, Archana Kamath and Madhurika Patkar bowed out of the women's singles race after making it to the round of 128.

Archana lost 11-8, 11-8, 19-17, 8-11, 6-11, 7-11, 4-11 to Egypt’s Dina Meshref after leading 3-0. Madhurika lost to world No 65 Amelie Solja of Austria 5-11, 11-9, 11-6, 8-11, 11-7, 13-11.

Manika, the world No 56, was rusty in her opening game but picked up momentum to dispose of the Serbian qualifier, ranked No 135, in quick time after the extended first game. Manika will meet Chen Szu-Yu of Taipei in her next round.

Earlier in the day, Manika combined well with Archana to beat Konstantina Paridi and Aikaterini Toliou of Greece 11-5, 11-6, 11-6, 11-7 to enter the women's doubles round of 32 where they will take on Japan’s Honoka Hashimoto and Hitomi Sato.

The second Indian pair of Madhurika and Suthirtha lost to the Canadian-Spanish combine of Mo Zhang and Maria Xiao 2-11, 11-6, 13-15, 8-11, 8-11.

In mixed doubles, G Sathiyan and Archana entered the pre-quarterfinals, beating Spaniards Alvaro Robles and Galia Dvorak 11-9, 11-4, 11-8, 11-13, 11-9 while Sharath Kamal and Manika exited, losing to the Polish pair of Marek Bodowski and Natalia Bajor 14-12, 6-11, 5-11, 6-11, 3-11.

In the men's doubles, Sharath and Sathiyan and Amalraj and Manav lost in the first round. Sathiyan and Sharath lost to Iran's Nima Alamian and Noshad Alamiyan 4-2 while Manav and Amalraj went down to Singapore's Clarence Zhe Yu Chew and Ethan Shao Feng Poh 4-1.