Pune: Bengaluru Smashers star paddler Manika Batra continued her scintillating form as she defeated T. Reeth Rishya of Goa Challengers in Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) Season 4 at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex here on Tuesday.
Manika thumped compatriot Reeth, who recently stunned World No. 28 Lily Zhang, 3-0 to register her fourth women’s singles victory in Season 4 for Bengaluru Smashers.
Manika, who is India’s highest-ranked paddler, went into attacking mode from the first serve and quickly took a big lead. She then wrapped up the game 11-4 with a precise backhand.
Manika used her reach and attacking powers to win the second game 11-5 and carried forward her momentum to clinch an 11-7 victory in the third game as well.
Earlier, Bengaluru Smashers’ Kirill Gerassimenko defeated the former World Championships silver medallist Alvaro Robles 2-1 in an exciting contest.
Robles began the first game brilliantly and showed immaculate precision to win it 11-3 before the Kazak paddler made a strong comeback and won the second game 11-8 to force the match into the decider. Kirill was at his very best in the third game as he played ferocious forehands on both flanks to clinch the decider 11-5 and the match.
–IANS