Commonwealth Games gold medallist and two-time Olympian, Manika Batra, created history on Friday, November 18 as she became the first Indian woman to reach the semifinals of the Asian Cup Table Tennis tournament with a 4-3 win over higher ranked Chen Szu-Yu of Chinese Taipei at Bangkok.
World number 44 Manika beat Chen, ranked 23rd in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) chart, 6-11 11-6 11-5 11-7 8-11 9-11 11-9 in a hard-fought women’s singles quarterfinals.
The Indian ace had earlier shocked world No. 7 Chen Xingtong of China in a round of 16 match on Thursday, November 17.
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In the semifinals, Manika will meet the winner of the match between Jeon Jihee of Korea and Mima Ito of Japan. .
Batra has been a true star of Indian Table Tennis, earning many accolades for herself and the nation. She won India’s first-ever table tennis gold in women’s singles at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, finishing the Games with a total of four medals, two of them gold.
Her splendid performances at the 2018 Commonwealth Games 2018 saw Batra grab the Breakthrough Star Award by the International Table Tennis Federation.
She then followed up that achievement by becoming the first women's Table Tennis player to reach the Round of 32 in singles at an Olympics at Tokyo 2020.
In 2020, Batra was awarded the highest sporting honour in India, the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award.
(With Inputs from PTI)
