Manik Batra is seen on the Asian Cup desk tennis championship in Bangkok. File
| Picture Credit score: Thananuwat Srirasant
Barely hours after dropping her semifinal match to Japan’s second seed Mima Ito within the Asian Cup desk tennis match in Bangkok on November 19, 2022, Manika Batra produced a stunning efficiency to outclass one other Japanese Hina Hayata, World No.6 and the third seed, (4-2) 11-6, 6-11, 11-7, 12-10, 4-11, 11-2 within the play-off match for the third place and bagged a historic bronze medal.
A giant shot-maker with a giant backlift, the left-handed Hayata is a paddler able to producing winners from robust positions and angles. Strategically, Manika largely nullified it by twiddling her racquet getting her lengthy pimpled rubber to do the remainder. Hayata struggled with the spin. However to scale back the Indian’s efficiency to ‘humorous’ rubbers will likely be false. Manika by no means relented from going for assault. Whereas trailing or when forward, she stored her focus and continued together with her aggressive method.
One of the best instance surfaced within the fourth sport towards Hayata. Trailing 6-10, Manika, ranked 44 on the planet and unseeded on the Asian Cup, produced a string of forehand winners to win the sport at 12-10.
To beat two world class players-Chen Xingtong (World No.7) within the quarterfinals and Hayata (World No.6) now — isn’t any simple job, and Manika has proved the doomsayers all improper with a efficiency to cherish for a very long time.
