Major Indian woman paddlers, Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula commenced their marketing campaign with a acquire in the opening fixture at the ITTF Earth Cup in Galaxy Arena at Macao on Tuesday.
Sreeja took a comfy 4- (11-9, 11-6, 11-5, 11-5) victory in excess of world no.52, Natalia Bajor of Poland while Manika Batra came from a person sport down to clinch a 3-1 (9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-8) victory versus planet no.46, Adina Diaconu of Roumania.
Sreeja played an superb sport towards Bajor who was having difficulties to return Sreeja’s effective ahead smashes on the desk. Sreeja started off a small slowly and gradually in the match and produced a several faults in the initially video game but somehow managed to get it, 11-9.
There was no wanting back for her after that and she started off dominating the rallies and observed precise angles on the table on her forward return which was very hard for Bajor to retrieve. This was Bajor’s next back again-to-back decline in the tournament, ending her journey here in Macao.
Sreeja is significant on self confidence with this scorching victory but has a extremely challenging undertaking on hand tomorrow against environment no. 4, Chen Meng of China. The winner of the match will development by means of to the knockout round of 16.
Sreeja begins Earth Cup with a bang! 🏓💥
An easy 4️⃣-0️⃣(11-9, 11-6, 11-5, 11-5) gain for the 🇮🇳 as she knocks off World no. 5️⃣2️⃣ Natalia Bajor of 🇵🇱 to kickstart her marketing campaign at ITTF Singles Planet Cup, Macao. 👏#ITTFWorldCup | #tabletennis pic.twitter.com/jUg8RF8mJt
— The Bridge (@the_bridge_in) April 16, 2024
Manika experienced a minor tougher match in her opening come across versus Adina, who commenced solid with her smashes to grab the first sport with 11-9. Manika promptly came back again into the match with her intense perform to take the up coming two online games.
She used her attain pretty effectively in people game titles to obtain some accurate large photographs on the table. In the closing activity, each players ended up not on their par and manufactured quite a few blunders on their forehand strokes and skipped a lot of prospects but Manika held her composure in the end to near the match with a win.
Manika will consider on environment no.2, Wang Manyu in the closing team activity tomorrow to guide a place in the next round. This is a very essential tournament for all the singles players right before the Paris Olympics.