Busan (South Korea): India women overcame a 0-2 deficit in the World Table Tennis Championship tie to script a victory by 3-2 against Spain to enter the round of 32. India finished the group stage in second position in their group behind China.
Spain was seeded 30 as compared to India's 17, so an easy win for India was expected. However, the start of the contests suggested otherwise and the team had to fight a lot to secure a win.
India's two best paddlers, Sreeja Akula, and Manika Batra lost the first two games of the tie and India was trailing by 0-2 as a result. Sreeja Akula lost the first match against Maria Xiao with a scoreline of 9-11, 11-9, 11-13 and 4-11.
Manika lost her match against Sofia Zhang by 11-13, 11-6, 11-8, 9-11 and 7-11. However, Ayhika Mukherjee provided a comeback by beating Elvira Rad with 11-6, 10-12, 11-4, and 11-6 which turned the tide in India's favour.
Both their paddlers, Manika and Sreeja then won their respective matches against Maria Xiao and Sofia Zhang respectively. Manika outplayed her opponent by 11-9, 11-2 and 11-4 while Sreeja defeated her opponent by 11-6, 11-13, 11-6, and 11-3.
With the victory, India finished the group stage in second place behind table-topper China. India has been going strong so far in the tournament and they will look to advance in the next stages of the tournament by dishing out a stellar performance. They will next face Italy in the round of 32.
In the men's competition, reigning national champion Harmeet Desai and G Sathiyan registered facile wins against Choi Timothy and Alfred Pena Dela respectively in the opening two singles. While Harmeet won 11-5, 11-1, 11-6, Sathiyan defeated Dela 11-3, 11-7, 11-6. Manush Shah then rallied from two games down to pull off a 10-12, 6-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-6 win over Maxwell Henderson to help India finish third in Group 3 behind South Korea and Poland. (With PTI Inputs)
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