Indian girl paddlers finish ninth

 

Morocco, December 4: The Indian girls’ team finished ninth after beating Croatia 3-2 in the classification match at the 2013 World Junior Table Tennis Championships here today. The team, comprising Manika Batra, Suthirtha Mukherjee, Ayhika Mukherjee and Reeth Rishya Tennison, managed to win their singles which helped the team claim in the 9-10 play-off matches this morning.

 

Both Ayhika Mukherjee and Manika Batra lost their rubbers to Jeger Mateja 11-9, 11-9, 7-11, 6-11, 9-11 and Rakovac Lea 8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 7-11, Reeth Rishya pulled one back beating Markati Paula 10-12, 15-13, 12-10, 11-7 to infuse fresh blood in the competition. Then Manika defeated Jeger Mateja 13-11, 11-5, 11-9 and Ayhika downed Rakova Lea 11-13, 11-7, 11-7, 11-9 to stage a remarkable recovery.

 

Earlier, India lost their both matches in stage II losing to Korea and Romania with identical score of 1-3. However, there was a silver lining when Ayhika showed her determination and guts to win both her singles against her Korean rivals.  But that was not good enough for India to move up. The Indian girls could have retrieved the situation if they had managed to beat Romania for a place in the quarterfinals. But that was not to be.