Indian paddler Manika Batra advanced to round two of the 2024 WTT Champions Montpellier tournament, with a straight-game win over Lily Zhang, on Wednesday.
The world no.30 made light work of the match against the American, winning 3-0 (11-4, 11-8, 12-10). She will face eighth-seed and world no.14 Bernadette Szocs of Romania in round two.
However, Manika’s compatriot Sreeja Akula exited the tournament with a defeat against Adriana Diaz, losing 2-3 (11-6, 7-11, 1-11, 11-8, 8-11).
Manika stormed into a 1-0 lead in the opening game, winning it 11-4, giving Lily no chance. She followed it up with another win in game two, albeit Lily was able to improve her score from four points to eight.
The third game was contested evenly, with Lily putting up a fight and taking the game to Manika the game went into deuce, where Manika prevailed 12-10, taking the match in straight games.
Sreeja Akula started her match on a positive note, winning her first game against Adriana 11-6, but Adriana stormed back into the match, winning the next two games extremely convincingly.
But Sreeja fought her way back in the fourth game, winning it 11-8, and took the match to the decider. However, Adriana was too good in the fifth game, winning it 11-8 and taking the match 3-2.