WTT Contender: Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula in remaining spherical of singles qualifiers

Image Source : GETTY IMAGES Manika Batra
Young India paddler Sreeja Akula outshone her higher-ranked opponent to progress into the final spherical of the ladies’s singles qualifiers on the World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender on Tuesday.
Manika Batra too inched nearer to qualifying on Tuesday. She and Sreeja are actually only a win away from making their means into the principle draw.

World No.150 from Hyderabad, Sreeja prevailed over world No.74 Vega Paulina of Chile within the earlier spherical and despatched Thailand’s 87th-ranked Orawan Paranang packing 11-5, 11-5, 11-6 within the third spherical. She will now tackle Russia’s Mariia Tailakova within the remaining spherical.
Tailakova entered the final spherical with a 14-12, 11-8, 11-8 win over India’s Archana Kamath.

Living as much as her fame, Commonwealth Games gold medallist and star Indian paddler Manika received the higher of Romania’s Irina Ciobanu 11-7, 15-13, 11-8 comfortably within the third spherical of ladies’s singles qualifiers, and can face Ganna Gaponova of Ukraine within the final spherical.
Earlier, within the remaining spherical matches of blended doubles qualifiers, Indian pair Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Sutirtha Mukherjee grabbed a spot in the principle draw after a straight-sets 11-5, 11-7, 11-5 victory towards Puerto Rico’s Daniel Gonzalez and Melanie Diaz.
However, India’s different pair Achanta Sharath Kamal and Manika did not benefit from an early recreation lead and misplaced out to Russia’s Alexander Shibaev and Polina Mikhailova 11-9, 11-13, 11-13, 3-11.
Harmeet Desai additionally suffered a 11-9, 11-7, 11th of September, 8-11, 2-11 defeat towards Russia’s Alexander Shibaev within the third-round match of the lads’s singles qualifiers. Despite dominating the primary two video games, Desai could not maintain his nerves and conceded an surprising loss.