Tokyo 2020 Olympics: Paddlers Manika Batra, Sutirtha Mukherjee cruise to next round in women's singles

India's ace table tennis star Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee have cruised to the next round in the women's singles event at Tokyo Metropolitan Gym -- Table 1 on Saturday.

Batra went past Briitain's Tin-Tin Ho as she wasted no time and won the match in four straight games 11-7, 11-6, 12-10, 11-9 in exactly 30 minutes.

The Indian paddler never seemed fazed by Tin-Tin Ho during the whole match. The big forehand of experienced Manika never gave Tin-Tin Ho a chance in the match to stage a come-back.

.@manikabatra_TT wins in straight sets against Great Britain's Tin-Tin Ho in her first-round of #TableTennis Singles match.

We wish her all the best for the next round!#Cheer4India pic.twitter.com/3jk6BCj9j0

— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) July 24, 2021

This win of Manika will come as a morale booster after she along with Achanta Sharath Kamal failed to qualify for the next round in the mixed doubles event after suffering a heavy 0-4 defeat against the Chinese Taipei team of Yun Ju Lin and Cheng I Ching.

Lin and Cheng of the Chinese Taipei annihilated the Indian duo in just 24 minutes in the best of seven games contest.

As for Mukherjee, her game went on till the seventh set against Sweden's Linda Bergström in her women's singles first-round match. She earned a hard-fought 4-3 win.

(Inputs from ANI)