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The Indian challenge at the Singapore Smash 2023 came to an end after Manika Batra lost both of her women's doubles and mixed doubles matches, partnering Archana Kamath and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran respectively, at the Singapore Sports Hub on Tuesday.
Batra and her partner G Sathiyan lost 3-2 (9-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-5, 7-11) in the mixed doubles quarter-finals to Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata, both world championships silver medallists. Manika Batra and Sathiyan started poorly as they conceded the first two games by identical (9-11) margins. Batra and Sathiyan were staring at defeat until they rallied, scoring seven points in a row to win the third game 11-8 and make the score 2-1. The Indian team maintained its lead throughout the fourth game to win it 11-5 and force a decider. However, the Indian table tennis players faltered at the final hurdle as the Japanese pair sealed the contest with an 11-7 margin in the deciding game. Earlier, in the women's doubles, Manika Batra and her partner Archana Kamath, suffered a 3-2 (2-11, 6-11, 15-13, 12-10, 6-11) loss to the Chinese duo of Chen Meng and Wang Yidi in a hard-fought round of 16 duels that lasted 43 minutes. During the first two games, Manika Batra and Archana Kamath were down 0-2 but came back to win the following two. In the championship match, Chen Meng and Wang Yidi outplayed Batra and Kamath 11-6 due to their inability to keep up with their tempo. As a result of Manika Batra, G Sathiyan, and Sharath Kamal losing their individual matches, the Indian singles challenge was already over. The Indian team of Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar lost in the round of 32 of the men's doubles competition. (ANI)
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