Tokyo Olympics Table Tennis: Manika Batra stuns world no. 32, advances to Rd 3

Tokyo: Indian paddler Manika Batra defeated Margaryta Pesotska of Ukraine 4-3 in the Tokyo Olympics table tennis women’s singles second round and advanced to the third round, here on Sunday.

Batra came back from 2-0 down and then forced the match into a seventh game to stage a remarkable win at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

The final score read 4-3 (4-11, 4-11, 11-7, 12-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7) in Manika's favour in a match, that lasted for 57 minutes.

The Indian table tennis player had defeated Great Britain’s Tin-Tin Ho 4-0 in the first round on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Manika’s compatriot Sutirtha Mukherjee, who defeated Sweden’s Linda Bergstrom in the women’s singles first round on Saturday, will play her second-round match against Fu Yu of Portugal on Monday.

Earlier in the day, second-ranked men's singles player Gnanasekaran Sathiyan crashed out of the Tokyo Olympics after losing 4-3 to Hong Kong's Lam Siu Hang in the second round of men’s singles event.

Sathiyan had a commanding 3-1 lead but lost four games in a row to lose 3-4 to the 95th ranked Hong Kong player. (UNI)