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The Indian table tennis stars Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula had contrasting outings on day two of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Cup 2026 in Macau on Tuesday.
Manika, the world number 47th in women's competition, secured a a 3-2 (11-7, 11-2, 14-16, 5-11, 11-6) win over world No. 42 Lily Zhang of the USA. Manika was dominant, looking on track to seal the match in straight games, but Lily produced a brilliant comeback to enforce a tie-break in the third game and won the fourth game as well to take the game to a decider fifth game, as per Olympics.com. The class of three-time Olympian Batra shone under pressure as she finished with a win in her final group stage match of the tournament. On the other hand, the 44th-ranked Akula did make a promising start against Portugal's Fu Yu by winning the first game, but she went down 1-3 (8-11, 11-9, 15-13, 11-8) against the world number 48. Sreeja's final group stage match will come on Wednesday against world number two and Olympic gold medalist Wang Manyu of China. Manav Thakkar, who lost to South Korea's Park Gang-hyeon in his campaign opener in the men's singles' competition, will face Olympic silver medalist world No. 2 Truls Moregardh of Sweden on Wednesday. No Indian player has ever secured an ITTF WC medal. Manika and Sreeja competed in the 2025 edition as well, but failed to make past the group stage. (ANI)
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