Manika Batra stars with three wins for hosts; Sharath ousted in WTT Star Contender Goa

 PANAJI: Star women paddler Manika Batra led the Indian performance with three wins across formats as main draw engagements in the World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender Goa, got underway here at the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium. Manika, presently at world rank (wr) 34, first won her women's singles Round of 64 match and then successively partnered Archana Kamath and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, to reach the quarterfinals of the women's and mixed doubles respectively, in her first appearance at a home WTT tournament. Sutirtha Mukherjee was the other Indian to win all her matches on the day, emerging triumphant in the women's singles and doubles respectively.

However, in what will be heartbreak for home fans, Indian legend Achanta Sharath Kamal bowed out of the tournament after going down in both his singles and doubles matches.

In the morning session, Sharath and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost their men's doubles Round of 16 match to Koreans Jae-hyun An and Seung-min Cho 3-1 (11-6, 11-7, 7-11, 11-8). Then in the final match of the day, rising Kazakh star Kirill Gerassimenko defeated the reigning Commonwealth Games champion in straight games 3-0 (11-8, 11-7, 11-8) to break Indian hearts. (IANS)

Also Read: Manika Batra Fights Her Way Into WTT Contender Semis

Also Watch: