Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships | India start strong winning all events
The hosts couldn’t have started any stronger in the ongoing 21st Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships as they brushed aside opponents in all events on round 1. While Manika Batra, Archana Kamath produced domineering displays, G. Sathiyan and Achanta Sharath matched up to them.
The first round saw the women paddlers starting strong in their Group B as they defeated Sri Lanka 3-0. The first match saw world No. 56 Manika Batra beating Lanka’s Bimandi Bandara 11-5, 11-4, 11-5, while Kamath overcame Ishani Madurangi’s challenge 11-5, 11-5, 12-10 with relative ease. Ayhika Mukherjee also showed strong dominance after losing the first game against Chamathsara Fernando as she won 11-3, 11-3, 8-11, 11-4.
India chose replace Batra with Sutirtha Mukherjee against South Africa in the team event and that didn’t make any difference as India claimed a 3-0 win. Kamath was at her absolute best against South Africa’s Danisha Patel, a five-time national champion, and swiped her aside 11-6, 11-2, 11-2.Â
Former senior national champion Madhurika Patkar had little problem brushing aside Palesa Mtshoelibe in the team event as she won 11-2, 11-5, 11-3. Mukherjee jumped on the bandwagon as well by beating Simeen Mookrey 11-1, 11-4, 11-4 as India went to the top of the group.
Next was the turn of the men’s events and the Achanta Sharath Kamal-led team was against Singapore and Scotland, who they thrashed 3-0. The strong start was provided by world No. 24 G. Sathiyan as he defeated Scotland’s Niall Cameron 11-4, 11-7, 11-8. He was backed by Sharath, who defeated Colin Dalgleish 11-2, 11-6, 11-9. Scotland’s Dylan Curry also went down against Harmeet Desai 2-11, 6-11, 1-11loss.