Tokyo: Indian table tennis star Manika Batra lost her women’s singles third round match 0-4 (8-11, 2-11, 5-11, 7-11) against 10th seed Sofia Polcanova of Austria here on Monday.
Batra and Polcanova did exchange some great points to start the match but it was Austrian who prevailed against Manika’s rally and took the first set 11-8. The second set was all Sofia from the start who cleverly neutralized Batra’s reverse spin and took the round.
Batra’s lethal forearm continued to be missing in the third round against the Austrian’s stern defense as she again failed to put any fight and her opponent took the set 11-5.
Earlier, Sutirtha Mukherjee also crashed out of the women’s singles event after losing her Round 2 match against Portugal’s Fu Yu.