India’s table tennis players had a bad outing with Soumyajit Ghosh and Manika Batra bowing out of the 17th Asian Games after suffering defeats in the men and women’s singles round of 16 matches, respectively, on Thursday.
In the men’s singles 1/16 elimination match, Ghosh suffered a 4-1 drubbing at the hands of DPR Korea’s Sinhyok Pak. The Indian paddler started on a promising note, comprehensively winning the first game 11-2, but the momentum shifted dramatically after that as the Korean won the next four games 11-7 11-8 13-11 11-8 in a 33-minute match.
In the women’s 1/16 elimination match, Batra lost to Kasumi Ishikawa of Japan 11-9 11-6 11-7 11-8 in 28 minutes, as the 19-year-old’s campaign came to an end.
Earlier, in the women’s singles round of 32 match, Batra had thrashed MA Chao In of Macau 4-0 in what turned out to be a one-sided affair at court 7 of Suwon Gymnasium to make it to the pre-quarterfinals.
Batra had won 11-7 11-4 11-9 11-6 in 24 minutes. She took just five minutes each to pocket the first two games and six each to win the last two.
However, Ankita Das could not clear the round of 32 hurdle even, losing to Hong Kong’s Wing Nam NG 2-4 (8-11 5-11 11-4 7-11 11-9 4-11) in a match that lasted a little more than half an hour.
