XtraTime Web Desk: A proud day for Bengal Table Tennis, as eighteen-year-old qualifier Anannya Basak, daughter of Kanchan and Arup Basak, knocked out the Commonwealth Games gold medalist Manika Batra by 11-4, 5-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-8 in a match that lasted 40 minutes.
Top seed Manika Batra lost in the women’s first round of the 11th Sports National-ranking table tennis tournament (south zone) on Monday.
The other big names to exit were fifth-seeded Krittwika Sinha Roy, seventh seed Ayhika Mukherjee and eighth seed Madhurika Patkar.
Strangely, World No. 56 Manika, who was the focus of all attention by virtue of her stature here, struggled to find her feet as Anannaya ran up a good lead and finished off the first game in just eight minutes.
The experienced Delhi player came back when she levelled by winning the second game However, Anannaya made the most of Manika’s net errors and sluggish approach to go 2-1 up. Manika, as is her wont, fought against a courageous Anannaya to level the scores.
But, it was the youngster from Mumbai who took the fourth on extended points before winning the fifth 11-8.