India’s Manika Batra, seeded sixth, scripted a commanding victory over Sabine Winter of Germany to march into the round of 16 in the women’s singles first round of the World Table Tennis Contender Budapest here on Tuesday. Joining Batra in the pre-quarterfinals were Archana Kamath and qualifier Sreeja Akula.
Earlier, Archana and Sreeja scripted upset wins over higher-ranked opponents. Archana, ranked 134 in the world, defeated Yana Noskova of Russia (WR 58) in tough five games. Sreeja defeated Linda Bergstrom of Sweden, ranked 72 places higher at 78, in five games.
The results:
Women’s singles (round of 32, first round): Manika Batra bt Sabine Winter (Ger) 8-11, 11-7, 11-6, 13-15, 11-5; Archana Kamath bt Yana Noskova (Rus) 11-8, 11-9, 6-11, 5-11, 11-9; Sreeja Akula bt Linda Bergstrom (Swe) 11-8, 6-11, 14-12, 2-11, 11-7; T. Reeth Rishya lost to Szandra Pergel (Hun) 10-12, 6-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-7.
Doubles (round of 16, first round): Men: Harmeet Desai & Manav Thakkar bt Jeet Chandra & Manav Shah 5-11, 11-7, 11-7, 13-11; Sanil Shetty & S. Snehit bt Tomas Martinko & Simon Belik (Cze) 5-11, 11-9, 11-2, 11-8.
Women: Selena Deepthi & Sreeja Akula lost to Linda Bergstrom & Christina Kallberg (Swe) 11-8, 10-12, 11-5, 11-8.
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