Asian Table Tennis Championships: Indian women off to a flying start 

India's Ayhika Mukherjee in action.
India's Ayhika Mukherjee in action.

The Indian women’s table tennis team got off to a flyer at the Asian Table Tennis Championships in Doha when they beat Jordan and Nepal by convincing 3-0 scorelines.

The wins meant the Indian women's table tennis team topped Group 1. India will meet Uzbekistan, who topped Group 3, in their next match as group winners and the winner will progress to the First Division championship match.

The Indian men’s team will kick start their proceedings on Wednesday (September 29) when they take on Iran in the quarter-finals.

In the first match against Jordan, the Indians never let their opponents take control. Sutirtha Mukherjee started the proceedings against Bara Al-Wedian and wrapped up the tie with a 11-6, 11-6, 11-4 win.


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Archana Girish Kamath, who had a wonderful run at the WTT Contender last week, got the better of Taimmaa Abo-Yaman 11-6, 11-5, 11-3 in just 14 minutes to give the Indian women's table tennis team a 2-0 lead.

Archana Kamath was extremely dominant and won 16 points off her own serve and 17 off Taimmaa’s serve to stamp her authority on the match.

Ayhika Mukherjee then steamrollered past Yara Aldmaisy in the third match to give the Indian women’s table tennis team a 3-0 win.

Ayhika barely broke a sweat as she won 11-7, 11-1, 11-1 in just 12 minutes as India walked away with the tie.


Indian women's table tennis team at their best

The win boosted India’s confidence levels as the Indian women’s table tennis team came out all guns blazing in their second tie of the day, against Nepal.

Sreeja Akula opened India’s account with a 11-6, 11-9, 11-8 win over Elina Maharjan in the first tie while Archana Kamath put it past Sikka Suwal 11-6, 11-5, 11-5 to double India’s lead.

Sutirtha Mukherjee then had it extremely easy in the third tie as she hardly put a foot wrong to trounce Evana Thapa 11-2, 11-8, 11-0 as the Indian women's table tennis team had a fruitful day.

The Indian women's table tennis team is without star paddler Manika Batra, who was omitted from the team for not reporting for the national camp earlier this month.

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Edited by Anantaajith Raghuraman