India table tennis star Manika Batra-led women's team created history in Paris Olympics 2024. India defeated Romania by 3-2 in the table tennis team event to qualify for the quarterfinal of the marquee event. Manika won her two singles matches against the world number four Romania team which helped India to qualify for the quarterfinal.
India started with a win in the first match
India gave the taste of defeat to the world number four Romania team in the first doubles match. India's pair of Archana Girish and Shreeja Akula defeated the Romanian women's pair of Adina Diaconu and Samara Elizabeta 11-9, 12-10, 11-7 in the first three games to give them a 1-0 lead.
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India registered victory in the second match as well
Manika Batra gave the second spectacular victory to the Indian women's table tennis team, which had won the first match. Manika had taken a 2-0 lead by defeating Bernadette 11-5, 11-7 and 11-7 in the singles match.
Romania's team made a comeback
Now after losing the first two matches, Samara Elizabeta, who came to play the singles match from Romania's team, defeated Shreeja Akula in a tough match of five games. Samara defeated Akula 8-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-6, 11-8. Due to which the Romanian women's team made a comeback from 1-2. Now in the fourth match for India, Archana Girish came to play the singles match but she also lost and Bernadette defeated Archana 11-5, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9 and equalized the score to 2-2.
Manika finally got the victory
After the 2-2 tie, in the last and close match, Manika Batra again came to give India the victory in singles. In her second singles, Manika defeated Romania's Bernadette in three consecutive games 11-5, 11-9, 11-9 in the singles match and got India a ticket to the quarterfinals. With this, the Indian women's table tennis team made it to the quarterfinals of the Olympic table tennis women's team event for the first time.
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