Singapore Smash: Indian challenge ends with Manika’s loss in both women’s and mixed doubles

Kallang (Singapore), March 14 (IANS) India’s campaign at the Singapore Smash ended after star paddler Manika Batra lost both women’s doubles and mixed doubles matches, with her respective partners here at the Singapore Sports Hub on Tuesday.

Manika and her partner Sathiyan Gnanasekaran fell 2-3 (9-11 9-11 11-8 11-5 7-11) to world championships silver medallists Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata of Japan in the mixed doubles quarterfinals.

The Indians had a poor start as they conceded the first two games by identical (9-11) margins. Manika and Sathiyan fought back by winning seven consecutive points as they took the third game 11-8 and took the equation to 2-1. They carried the momentum into the fourth game and clinched it 11-5 to force a decider.

However, the Indians faltered in the final game as the Japanese pair sealed the contest with an 11-7 margin in the decider.

Earlier, in the women’s doubles, Batra partnering with Archana Kamath, suffered a 2-3 (2-11 6-11 15-13 12-10 6-11) loss at the hands of the Chinese combination of Chen Meng and Wang Yidi in a hard-fought round-of-16 battle that lasted 43 minutes.

India’s challenge in the singles discipline had earlier ended after Manika, Sathiyan and Sharath Kamal lost their respective first-round matches.

In the men’s doubles, the Indian pair of Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar were bowed out in the round-of-32.

–IANS

bc/cs