Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra are no longer in contention for a medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics. The Indian table tennis duo lost to Javen Choong and Karen Lyne of Malaysia 9-11, 9-11, 9-11, 11-7, 8-11 in the Stage-2 quarterfinals of the world mixed doubles Olympic qualification event on April 12.
Sathiyan and Manika proved to be no match for the Malaysian pair. They lost the opening three games (11-9) but raised their hopes after taking the fourth 11-7. However, that excitement was short-lived as they were handed an 11-8 routing and ultimately knocked out of the event.
Olympics
Sathiyan-Manika’s sluggish performance
Manika Batra was an error machine against Choong-Lyne. She made mistakes on both forehand and backhand and wasn’t great at attacking or defending. Sathiyan wasn’t much better either.
The best player on the table was Choong, who was lightning quick and even overpowered his partner. However, when it mattered, even Lyne stood up. The highlight was Choong’s forehand topspin shots, which left the Indian pair with no answers.