Soumyajit advances; Ankita, Manika makes Slovenia exit

NAGPUR: Friday brought fluctuating fortunes for Indian paddlers in the ITTF World Tour Slovenia Open Table Tennis Challenge. While India's Olympic bound Soumyajit Ghosh posted a comfortable victory to advance to the round of 32 in the men's singles, Ankita Das and Manika Batra went down fighting in their respective opening round ties on the third day of the six-day World Tour event being played under the aegis of International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).
Having secured a direct entry into the main draw, Soumyajit gave a rollicking start to his campaign with an easy 4-1 win over Yusuke Watanabe of Japan. Soumyajit won 11-7, 7-11, 12-10, 12-10, 11-4 to make it to the second round. In the round of 32, Soumyajit will square up against Croatian paddler Frane Kojic who made light work of Germany's Qiu Dang 11-13, 6-11, 11-7, 10-12, 4-11.
It was however, a bad in office for both the qualifying Indian women paddlers. While Ankita Das failed to keep her winning momentum going, Manika Batra missed the second round berth by a whisker.
Up against an experienced and higher ranked Lee I-Chen Tpe paddler from Chinese Taipei, Ankita tried to give her best but surrendered meekly. Ankita lost 8-11, 5-11, 6-11, 7-11. "I think today was not my day. She is really good and I didn't play well today," a dejected Ankita told TOI.
It was, however, a heartbreak 3-4 exit for Manika Batra. With an aggressive start Manika took USA's Lily Zhang by surprise. The Indian took a handy 3-0 lead by winning the initial three games 11-9, 11-6, 11-4. As luck would have it, Manika failed to keep her cool in the dying stage to go down fighting 8-11, 6-11, 3-11, 9-11 in the remaining games for an early exit.