India beat Romania 3-2 to enter women’s TT team event quarterfinals

PARIS: Star player Manika Batra led from the front as India prevailed over higher-ranked Romania 3-2 in a thrilling tie and made a memorable entry into the quarterfinals of the women’s table tennis team competition at the Paris Olympics here on Monday.

Leading 2-0, India saw Romania fight back to draw level at 2-2 but in the decider, Manika delivered for her side.

Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath started the proceedings with a 11-9 12-10 11-7 win over Adina Diaconu and Elizabeta Samara in a doubles match.

Manika made short work of higher-ranked Bernadette Szocs in a 11-5 11-7 11-7 victory as India took a comfortable 2-0 lead in the tie against their fourth-seeded opponents.

India are seeded 11th in the competition.

In the second singles match however, things did not go in India’s favour as Sreeja went down 2-3 (11-8 4-11 11-7 6-11 8-11) to European champion Samara after winning the first game.