Manika Batra crashes out of women's singles at Singapore Smash 2023
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Manika Batra's elimination from the women's singles round of 64 put an end to India's challenge in the singles division of the Singapore Smash 2023. After the defeats of Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in their respective men's singles bouts on Saturday, Manika Batra too suffered a defeat.
In a fiercely contested match that lasted 52 minutes, Manika Batra lost to Sweden's Linda Bergstrom 3-2 (12-10, 6-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-13). The Indian player had a good start in the match, winning the opening game 12-10 and taking the lead. The Swedish player rallied, though, and won the following two games to lead the match 2-1.
To stay in the match, Manika Batra battled and won the fourth game 11-8. Manika Batra challenged Linda Bergstrom in the final, but the Swedish opponent won 11-13 in a fiercely contested match, eliminating the Indian in the first round.
G Sathiyan and Manika Batra will now play in the mixed doubles event on Monday. The Singaporeans Chew Zhe Yu Clarence and Jian Zeng will compete against the Indian team. The women's doubles will also include Manika Batra and Archana Kamath. Both couples will begin the competition in the second round after receiving byes in the first round.
An earlier round of 32 encounter in the men's doubles saw the Indian team of Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar lose 3-0 (11-4, 11-7, 11-6) to Argentina's Gaston Alto and Horacio Cifuentes.
Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai had previously fallen short in the men's singles qualifying round.
