Bangkok (Thailand), Nov 18 () Ace Indian paddler Manika Batra on Friday became the first Indian woman to reach the semifinals of the Asian Cup Table Tennis tournament after she registered a hard-fought win over world No.23, Chen Szu Yu from Chinese Taipei, here.
World number 44 Manika beat Chen 4-3 (6-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-7, 8-11, 9-11, 11-9) in the women’s singles quarterfinals.
The 27-year-old Indian had earlier beaten world No.7 Chen Xingtong of China in a Round of 16 match on Thursday. In the semifinals, she will meet the winner of the match between Jeon Jihee of Korea and Mima Ito of Japan.
The recent results will do a world of good for Batra, who didn’t have a great time in 2022 due to some off-the-field issues and her performance on the court as well. At the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, she failed to win a single medal after winning four of them in the 2018 edition.
Leading the side at the world team event in October, Manika lost both her matches in India’s 2-3 loss to Germany in the opening tie. But she collected the wins in the remaining two group matches as the women’s team qualified for the knockouts after finishing 17th in the previous edition.
Earlier this month, Manika won the mixed doubles silver medal alongside partner G Sathiyan at the WTT Contender Nova Gorica in Slovenia which took them to the highest-ever world No. 5 spot in the mixed doubles charts.
avn/bsk