The Indian women's table tennis team went down 2-3 to China despite stunning individual performances from Ayhika Mukherjee and Sreeja Akula in their opening group tie at the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships in Busan, South Korea on Friday. (Streaming | More Table Tennis News)
Mukherjee and Akula defeated the world's top two players, Sun Yingsha and Wang Yidi, respectively, in their singles matches. But indifferent performance from top-ranked player Manika Batra proved detrimental to India's cause.
Starting the proceedings for India, Ayhika, ranked 155, punched way above her weight to pull off a brilliant 12-10, 2-11, 13-11, 11-6 win against world number one Yingsha to give her team a 1-0 lead. Commonwealth Games medallist Sreeja then pulled off a dominating win over Yidi. She won 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 13-11).
Batra endured a disappointing day. She lost both her singles matches in straight games -- to world number four Wang Manyu (3-11, 8-11, 15-13, 7-11) and Yingsha (3-11 6-11 13-11 9-11).
Later, with the tie locked at 2-2, the 26-year-old Ayhika was unable to recreate the magic of her opening match and went down to Manyu (9-11, 11-13, 6-11) in straight games.
In their next Group 1 tie, India women will take on Hungary on Sunday, with the first match starting at 1.30 p.m. IST.
