ITTF World Cup: Manika, Sreeja suffer group stage exit

Indian paddlers Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula suffered second-round group stage exit after going down to the top Chinese paddlers, Wang Manyu and defending champion Chen Meng respectively at the ITTF World Cup in Galaxy Arena here on Wednesday.

World No. 39 Sreeja lost 1-3 (4-11, 4-11, 15-13, 2-11) to reigning Olympic champion and world no. 4 Chen Meng of China and finished second in the group. Manika Batra, too, finished second after losing 0-4 (6- 11, 4-11, 9-11, 4-11) to world no. 2 Wang Manyu of China.

Earlier both the paddlers won their respective first-round group stage matches on Tuesday.

There are sixteen groups in each of the men’s and women’s singles competitions. Group stage matches comprise four games, with the ratio of wins to losses determining the final rankings that will further help to book a berth for the knockout stages.