Table Tennis star Manika Batra progresses to 3rd round with emphatic win in Tokyo Olympics

World number 62, Manika looked a completely different player today at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gym as she displayed a calm demeanour and came back strongly after losing the first two games.

29-year-old Pesotska won the first two games in a dominating fashion as she took just 5 and 6 minutes each to win them by 11-4 11-4 margin. The Ukrainian looked in sublime touch against the 26-year-old Indian paddler. Manika went on winning the third and fourth games 11-7 and 12-10 and showed her character. She then lost the fifth game 8-11 as the Ukrainian made a comeback.

Tokyo 2020: G Sathiyan stunned by lower ranked Hong Kong paddler; Indian loses despite taking 3-1 lead

However, Manika – who bagged a gold medal at the 2018 CWG – once again came back strongly to win the remaining two games 11-5 and 11-7 to advance to the next round.

It was a completely different Manika we saw today because she hardly made any noise after winning a point or even a game. It seemed as if she was here to make a statement.

Earlier on Saturday (July 24), the Delhi girl defeated 94th-ranked Tin-Tin Ho of Britain 4-0 in her opening game and set aside the disappointment of her first-round exit in the mixed doubles round with Sharath Kamal.

Manika, however, made the heads turn when there was no one was sitting in the coach’s corner. She had refused to take the advice of national coach Soumyadeep Roy during her first-round match after her personal coach was not granted on-court access.

Manika’s personal coach Sanmay Paranjape was controversially cleared to travel with her to Tokyo but is not allowed to stay at the Games Village with the national team. He is staying in a hotel and is allowed access only for training sessions.

The 26-year-old had wanted Paranajpe’s accreditation to be upgraded so that he could be court-side during her matches but team leader M P Singh, who is also a TTFI advisor and is in Tokyo, said Manika’s request for field-of-play access to her coach was denied by the organisers.

Earlier in the day, ace India paddler Sathiyan Gnanasekaran’s journey in the men’s singles table tennis in Tokyo Olympics came to a disappointing end after getting defeated by Hong Kong’s Lam Sui Hang in round two on Sunday (July 25) at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gym.

Sathiyan – who was playing in his maiden Olympic Games – lost to a lower-ranked paddler from Hong Kong 4-3. Lam – who is ranked 95th – came back strongly after the higher-ranked Indian paddler (37th) won three games back-to-back. The Hong Kong paddler showed experience to gather himself up and won the match 11-7 7-11 11-4 5-11 11-9 12-10 11-6.