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Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula failed to go through to the knockout rounds of the ITTF World Cup 2024, which is currently being held in Macao, China. On Wednesday, April 17, Sreeja, who is ranked No. 39 in the world, lost to World No. 4 Chen Meng from China. The Chinese star, who won gold in both singles and doubles in the Tokyo Olympics, clinched the match 3-1 (11-4, 11-4, 13-15, 11-2).
In her opening match on Tuesday, Sreeja, who recently notched her career-best ranking after winning the singles title at WTT Beirut, got the better of Natalie Bajor. She won the match 4-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-5, 11-5).
Against Meng, barring the fourth game, Sreeja, who has a Commonwealth Games gold medal to her name, looked lackluster and failed to put her opponent under enough pressure. She finished second in Group 4.
Manika Batra fails to cling on
Manika Batra, who represented India in the Tokyo Olympics, finished second after losing to Chinese star Wang Manyu. The Indian paddler lost to the World No. 2 from China 0-4 (6-11, 4-11, 9-11, 4-11). In her first match, Manika showed nerves of steel as she made a comeback after being a game down against Adina Diaconu 3-1.
Manika won the match 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-8. Unfortunately, she could not quite carry her form against Wang, who did not give her opponent much breathing space. Manika also finished second in her group.
Sixteen group matches take place in each of the men’s and women’s categories of the World Cup 2024. Four matches comprise every group. Only the winners from the groups qualify for the knockout stages.
Sun Chengzu, Wang Yidi, Shin Yubin, Hina Hayata, Adriana Diaz, Jeon Jihee, Miu Hirano, and Joo Cheonhui are among the ones who topped their respective groups and made their way through to the knockouts.
