Asian Cup 2022: Manika Batra, one of the nation’s top-ranked professional table tennis players, made history on Saturday (November 19) in Bangkok, Thailand, by winning bronze in the ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup competition. She became the first Indian woman paddler to win a medal in the Asian Cup table tennis competition thanks to the historic victory.
Manika won her match against Hina Hayata, the sixth-ranked player in the world and a three-time Asian champion, 4-2 to take home the bronze. She had earlier lost to Mma Ito in the semifinal match, but that didn’t stop her from moving on to the bronze medal match, where she took centre stage and wrote a new history record.
Manika Batra receives praise
She put on an exceptional performance to defeat China’s Chen Xingtong, the seventh-ranked player in the world, in the opening round of the Asian Cup 2022 table tennis match. She was honoured by a number of well-known people after winning the bronze match, including President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Taking to Twitter, President Droupadi wrote, “Congratulations to Manika Batra for scripting sports history by becoming the first Indian woman table tennis player to win a medal in the Asian Cup. She defeated top-ranking players in the tournament. This win will inspire our youth, especially girls, to emulate her excellence.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote, “I congratulate Manika Batra for scripting history for Indian Table Tennis at the Asian Cup by winning a Bronze. Her success will inspire many athletes across India and make Table Tennis even more popular.”
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Manika Batra: Indian Table Tennis star
One of the great stars of the game of table tennis, Manika Batra has won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, two Olympic medals, among other awards. She became the first Indian woman to play singles and go to round 32 in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
She gained notoriety when she returned from the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia with four medals, including two gold ones. Prior to that, Batra won three gold medals in the South Asian Games in 2016 and made her Rio debut.
In Delhi, where she declined modelling offers to focus on sports, she started playing the game at a young age alongside her siblings. She wants to emulate Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu in badminton and table tennis, respectively.
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