Jakarta : Indian paddlers Manika Batra and Sharath Kamal progressed to the women’s and men’s singles pre-quarterfinals in the table tennis competition of the Asian Games here on Thursday. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran also made it to the round of 16 but it was curtains for Mouma Das in women’s singles.
Manika, who won four medals at the Commonwealth Games, thrashed Nanthana Komwong 4-0 (11-3, 11-7, 11-3, 11-6) in a lop-sided match in the round of 32, while the experienced Sharath notched up a 4-0 (11-4, 11-8, 11-7, 11-5) win over Pakistan’s 52-year-old Muhammad Asim Qureshi.
Later in the day, Sathiyan defeated Indonesia’s Ficky Supit Santoso 4-2 (11-3, 9-11, 14-12, 11-1, 9-11) in a round of 32 match. Earlier, Mouma lost 0-4 (6-11, 5-11, 6-11, 6-11) to Chinese Taipei’s Chen Szuyu in a round of 32 match.
