Paris Olympics 2024: Manika Batra-led India beat Romania in Women’s Table Tennis event, enter quarter-final

Manika Batra led India on Monday entered quarterfinals of women’s table tennis team event with 3-2 win over Romania at Paris Olympics.

In a thrilling tie, India prevailed over higher-ranked Romania 3-2, to enter into the quarterfinals.

Leading 2-0, India saw Romania fight back to draw level at 2-2 but in the decider, Manika delivered for her side.

India will be facing off against either the USA or Germany in the women's table tennis quarterfinal.

Japan, Poland, France and Thailand are also on the same side of the draw, reported PTI.

Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath started the proceedings with a 11-9 12-10 11-7 win over Adina Diaconu and Elizabeta Samara in a doubles match.

Manika made short work of higher-ranked Bernadette Szocs in a 11-5 11-7 11-7 victory as India took a comfortable 2-0 lead in the tie against their fourth-seeded opponents.

In the second singles match however, Sreeja went down 2-3 to European champion Samara after winning the first game.

Sreeja's defeat paved the way for a face-off between Archana and Bernadette and the latter won the first game 11-5, but the Indian bagged the second 11-8 to restore parity. However, Bernadette won the next two games 11-7 11-9 to clinch the match and send the tie to the decider.

Last week, both Manika and Sreeja scripted table tennis history by becoming the first Indian players to reach the round of 16 in the individual event at the Olympics.

"I could have put in more effort. I was not happy with the way I started. I am not happy internally. I got confidence after the third game but she played at a good level. It hurts. I had to be calmer," Manika said after the match.

However they lost to higher-ranked opponents.

Earlier this week, Sreeja Akula lost 0-4 to world number one Yingsha Sun of China in the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles

- With agency inputs