World Table Tennis Championships: Indian women crush Croatia 3-0; qualify for main draw

Perfect 2016 World TT Championships - India’s women team qualified for the main drawNew Delhi: India’s women team qualified for the main draw after topping group G in the on-going Perfect 2016 World Championships at Kuala Lumpur today morning.

In the Second Division last group match, the Indian paddlers beat Croatia 3-0 for a clean sweep of full points. Manika Batra beat Lea Rakova 11-8, 12-10, 8-11, 11-6 to provide the lead which was then consolidated by Mouma Das who defeated Yuan Tian 13-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-2. In the third singles, K. Shamini downed Ivana Tubikanec 14-12, 11-8, 7-11, 11-3.

Yesterday, in the late evening match, the women’s team got a walkover from Nigeria.

Our men’s team, after the third round reverse against Nigeria beat Switzerland 3-0 in a late evening match yesterday. Soumyajit Ghosh gave the lead beating Elia Schmid 11-8, 11-7, 8-11, 11-3. Sharath Kamal, playing the second singles, defeated Lionel Webber in straight games of 11-7, 11-7, 11-7 while in the third, G. Sathiyan, who was tried out in a new combination, downed Nicolas Champod, also in straight games of 11-7, 11-5, 11-3.

The Indian men’s team is scheduled to play Slovak Republic later today to complete their group F engagements and the results of which will decide the fate teams. The Nigerians are leading the points table with eight while the Indians are just behind them with seven points.