Three Indian women paddlers qualified for the singles main draw of the World Individual Table Tennis Championships after winning their first singles group matches which began on Sunday. They topped their respective (three-member) groups of 60.
On Monday, the three paddlers, Madhurika Patkar, Archana Kamath, and Sutirtha Mukherjee won their final group matches.
Day 1⃣ at the #ITTFWorlds2019 proved successful for the Indian contingent! Good luck #TeamIndia for Day 2⃣#NotJustPingPong pic.twitter.com/9e6JBgkTqx
— Table Tennis India (@TableTennisInd) April 22, 2019
Archana had a tough match against Eva Odorova of Slovakia. She lost the first two games with scores 4-11, 8-11. She fought back in the next three games to seal the match with scores 11-9, 11-5, 11-6, 11-5 and won. Archana’s international career began in 2014 when she got the opportunity to represent Team India and only Indian to be selected to represent Team Asia at the ITTF World Cadet Challenge later that year. She clinched a Team Silver medal being the only Indian to have done so and was also presented the ITTF Fair Play Award.
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The other women paddler, Madhurika did not let her opponent Catherine Spicer of Trinidad and Tobago take even one game lead. She blanked her with 11 -3, 11-8, 11-3, 11-6. Madhurika is one of the finest table tennis players in India. She was an important part of the Indian trio who defeated Singapore in Commonwealth 2018 at Gold Coast and won India a gold medal.
The third women paddler, Sutirtha bagged a 14-12, 12-10, 11-8, 11-9 win over Rachel Moret of Switzerland. She was the winner of national Table Tennis Championship. She was also was a part of the Gold medal winning Indian women’s team at 2018 Commonwealth Game.
Table Tennis | ITTF World Championships | National Champion Archana Kamath, Madhurika Patkar & Sutritha Mukherjee are through to main draw of Women's Singles with 2 wins each in Qualifiers.
— India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) April 22, 2019
Manika Batra is already in the main draw. pic.twitter.com/NjWZahuUYM
One of India’s top-ranked paddlers, Manika Batra is the only woman in the singles main draw, beginning from Tuesday.
In the men’s category, Manav Thakkar qualified for the men’s singles main draw with a tough-fight of scores 11-5, 11-7, 8-11, 14-16, 11-8, 6-11, 11-5 but finally clinched a win over Leonardo Mutti of Italy in the preliminary (knock-out) round.
The other man paddler, A. Amalraj lost to Tom Jarvis of England 11-7, 11-9, 9-11, 6-11, 11-9, 9-11,11-3.
