By Ariwodo praise izuchukwu
Archana Kamath stunned Shan Xiaona 19-17, 1-11, 11-5, 11-9 in the India vs Germany women’s team quarter-final at the Paris 2024 table tennis tournament.
India were trailing 0-2 after Sreeja Akula-Archana Kamath and Manika Batra suffered losses in the first two contests. However, Kamath edged an extremely competitive match against Shan Xiaona, a silver medallist at Rio 2016.
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Sreeja Akula, now, faces Annett Kaufmann in a must-win contest for India in the quarter-final.
Score: India trail 1-2 against Germany in the women’s team quarter-final in table tennis.
Earlier, India crashed out of women’s table tennis at the Paris Olympics 2024 after losing 1-3 to Germany in the quarterfinal. The team, comprising Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath failed to perform as a unit as India failed to make their way into the semi-final. With their defeat, India’s campaign in table tennis in Paris also ended.
Starting with, Sreeja and Archana lost to the pair of Wan Yuan and Shan Xiano 1-3 (5-11, 11-8, 10-12, 6-11). With India 0-1 down, Manika started her match against Annett Kaufmann in an emphatic manner after taking the opening game. However, she lost steam from the second set onwards and ended up losing the match 1-3 (11-8, 5-11, 7-11, 5-11).
With India in all sorts of trouble behind 2-0 down, Archana came out firing on all cylinders against Shan. The opening game turned out to be an absolute thriller where Archana triumphed. Although she lost the second game by a massive margin, she made sure to make a strong comeback to win the match 3-1 (19-17, 1-11, 11-5, 11-9).
Sreeja Akula succumbs to pressure
It was then up to Sreeja, India’s top-ranked badminton player, to keep alive in the competition. However, she could not perform to expectations and lost the match 0-3 (6-11, 7-11, 7-11).
Earlier on Tuesday, the Indian men’s team crashed out after losing to China in the Round of 16. In singles, Manika had made history after she became the first Indian paddler to qualify for the pre-quarters of a table tennis event at the Olympics.
Sreeja became the second woman from India to achieve the feat. But both Sreeja and Manika were knocked out in the pre-quarters. Achanta Sharath Kamal, India’s flagbearer in the opening ceremony, also failed to make an impact in singles and doubles.
