CWG 2018| Manika Batra becomes first Indian woman to win CWG gold in table tennis singles

04/14/2018

After leading the Indian women’s team to a gold medal and winning a silver medal in the doubles event, Manika Batra became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal in table tennis singles. It was India’s third gold in table tennis after the men’s and women’s team won their respective team events.

Manika Batra, who has been in splendid form in this Commonwealth Games, continued her purple patch as she clinched a gold medal in the table tennis singles competition. She beat Singapore’s Mengyu YU in four straight sets to win the final.

After beating top-seed Tianwei Feng in the semi-final, Batra entered the final confidently and started well. In the first set, she won 11-7 to take an early lead in the final. The next two sets were dominated by Batra as the 22-year-old paddler took a 3-0 lead. The second and the third set had scores of 11-6 and 11-2 as Batra entered the fourth set on the cusp of history.

Batra was not challenged much and she won the fourth set 11-7 as she became the first Indian woman paddler to win a gold at the Commonwealth Games. This was her third medal at the Commonwealth Games this year as she had won the gold medal with the women’s team in the team-event and won the silver in the women’s doubles competition along with Mouma Das.

It helped India take their table tennis medal tally to four (3 gold and 1 silver) and it was India’s 24th gold medal overall.