Singapore, (Samajweekly) India’s campaign at the inaugural WTT 2022 Grand Smash Singapore came to an end after Manika Batra and Archana Kamath’s exit from the women’s doubles quarter-finals, here on Tuesday.
The pair of Batra and Kamath, who got a bye in the round of 32, beat Singapore’s Goi Rui Xuan and Wong Xin Ru 3-2 in the round of 16 to set up a quarters clash against Japanese second seeds Hina Hayata and Mima Ito.
Against Hayata and Ito, a two-time world championships silver medal-winning team, the Indian table tennis pair put up little resistance and went down 0-3 (11-7, 11-4, 11-8).
Notbaly, Batra and Kamath were the last remaining Indians at the Singapore meet. The 26-year old Batra, who exited the singles competition in the first round, had also made the mixed doubles quarters with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran but lost, an olympics.com report said.
In the men’s singles, G Sathiyan made it till the second round while Sharath Kamal fell off in the first round. Sathiyan and Kamal couldn’t make it past the men’s doubles round of 16. Ayhika Mukherjee, who made the women’s singles main draw through qualification, exited after the first round.
The Grand Smash, starting from this year, is the highest-tier table tennis event in the annual calendar – similar to Grand Slams in tennis. A total of four Grand Smashes will be held every year in different cities. Singapore was chosen to host the inaugural Grand Smash, which concludes on Sunday.
