After China miss, Manika Batra delivers crucial win against Hungary

India’s Manika Batra in action during her women’s singles group stage match

Coming off two defeats in India’s battling 3-2 loss to China in the opening group fixture, Manika Batra had a lot riding on her shoulders walking into the final match of the tie against Hungary locked at 2-2. India’s top-ranked paddler delivered the result her team desperately needed, defeating Hungarian No. 1 Georgina Pota 3-0 (11-5, 14-12, 13-11) in the deciding rubber to give the Indian women’s team its first win at the 2024 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Busan on Sunday.

Manika came up with two gritty wins on the day, also giving India the lead in the first match by edging past their No. 2 Dora Madarasz 3-2 (8-11, 11-5, 12-10, 8-11, 11-4). With Sreeja Akula having a below-par outing — she lost to world No. 88 Pota and No. 90 Madarasz — and Ayhika Mukherjee coming up with another impressive result in beating Bernadett Balint 3-1 (7-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-8), it would all come down to Manika.

After giving China a mighty scare, the victory over the higher-ranked Hungary is important for the women’s team as it keeps them in fray for a top three finish in Group 1, which will put them into the knockouts and with a shot at the Paris Olympics team quota.

The men, on the other hand, suffered a 3-1 defeat to Poland after easing past Chile on Saturday. Only Harmeet Desai managed a win while the experienced Sharath Kamal and young Manav Thakkar faltered. The men’s team now finds itself with a lot of work to do to sneak into the knockouts from Group 3, starting with the third-ranked Koreans on Monday. The women take on lower-ranked Uzbekistan on Monday.

Sunday was all about Manika, who was fielded first up against Hungary unlike two days ago when Ayhika opened proceedings against China.

The Indian had a slow start but picked up the pace in the second game, racing to 9-4 extracting errors from Madarasz off her backhand blocks. She levelled things up at 5-5 from 2-5 down in the third game, again using the block to good effect. Manika managed to save a game point with a lucky net touch off her return before an error by Madarasz handed her the game. Manika’s backhand errors cost her in the fourth game but with the scoreline at 4-4 in the fifth, she reeled off seven straight points.

India’s Chinese slayers had contrasting fortunes against Hungary. Ayhika, who had stunned world No. 1 Sun Yingsha on Friday, remained clinical against lower-ranked Balint in the third match and was impressive off her forehand wing. On either side of it, Sreeja couldn’t back up her show against No. 2 Wang Yidi and went down 2-3 (3-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-9, 8-11) to Pota and 1-3 (4-11, 6-11, 11-5, 7-11) to Madarasz.

It meant it was left for Manika to get the job done in the high-stakes final rubber. Manika was off the blocks against Pota in the opening game but was trailing 3-6 in the second. She dug in to make it 9-9 and also saved a couple of game points before hammering a forehand to get the game. She again had to thwart two game points and saw a match point go, but kept her composure. As she sealed the win after an error from Pota, Manika raised both her fists, flashed a smile towards her teammates and stuck her tongue out in an expression of relief.

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