Doha, March 27 : India’s table tennis star Manika Batra entered the second round of WTT Star Contender after beating Qian Tianyi of China in an intense first round match here at Lusail Sports Arena on Sunday. Batra, who is ranked 48th in the world, defeated Tianyi 3-2 (11-9, 4-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-9) in match lasted 40 minutes. The Indian will play Xiaona Shan of Germany in the round of 32. Batra will also compete in the women’s doubles with Archana Kamath and in the mixed doubles with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran. In the men’s doubles, Sharath Kamal and Manav Thakkar lost their opening round match 3-1 (6-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-5) to the Spanish-Romanian duo of Alvaro Roubles and Ovidiu Ionescu. Manav will compete in mixed doubles event with his partner Archana. Another men’s doubles team of Sanil Shetty and Amalraj Anthony also knocked out in the first round after losing 3-0 (11-3, 11-8, 11-8) to Dang Qiu and Benedikt Duda of Germany. BAV SHK2049
