India’s campaign at the Table Tennis World Cup in Macau came to an end on Wednesday, April 1. The nation faced defeat in both the men’s and women’s singles event respectively. In the men’s singles, it was Sreeja Akula and on the men’s side, it was Manav Thakkar. Both lost their respective matches and have exited from the tournament.
In the women’s singles, Sreeja lost to World No. 2 Wang Manyu of China in straight games by sets of 8-11, 7-11, 3-11. Meanwhile, Manika Batra who had a chance of qualifying in the Round of 16 from Group 4 lost her hopes after Japan’s Miwa Harimoto won against Malaysia’s Lily Zhang by 3-0. Batra, the World No. 49 tennis player was the only Indian to secure a win at the tournament.
Batra had lost her tournament opener to Japan’s Miwa Harimoto by 0-3. In the second game, she then defeated USA opponent Lily Zhang by sets of 11-7, 11-2, 14-16, 5-11, 11-6 in the 43-minute match. Batra sealed the win by 3-2. Meanwhile, World No. 42 Akula was defeated in the opening game by Fu Yu of Group 2. The Portuguese player had defeated the Indian by sets of 11-8, 9-11, 13-15, 8-11.
On the other hand, India’s men’s singles player Thakkar lost his game to Sweden’s Truls Moregard in 20 minutes by sets of 5-11, 11-3, 7-11, 5-11. Previously, on Tuesday, April 1, Thakkar had lost to Korea’s Ganghyeon Park.
The ITTF World Cup 2026 is being held in Macau, China that began from March 30 and will continue until April 5. The tournament features some of the world’s strongest men’s and women’s singles tennis players.
The tournament will be played in best-of-five games in Stage 1 of group matches. A total of 48 players are competing, who have been divided into groups of three each making a total of 16. All the seeds of the players have been set by the World Rankings. One winner from each group stage team will then advance to the Stage 2 knockout draw.
