Manika had shocked world No. 7 Chen Xingtong of China in round of 16 match

Manika had shocked world No. 7 Chen Xingtong of China in round of 16 match

Manika had shocked world No. 7 Chen Xingtong of China in round of 16 match

Star paddler Manika Batra on Friday became the first Indian woman to reach the semifinals of the Asian Cup Table Tennis tournament with a 4-3 win over higher ranked Chen Szu-Yu of Chinese Taipei in Bangkok.

World number 44 Manika beat Chen, ranked 23rd in the ITTF chart, 6-11 11-6 11-5 11-7 8-11 9-11 11-9 in a hard-fought women's singles quarterfinals.

The Indian ace had earlier shocked world No. 7 Chen Xingtong of China in a round of 16 match on Thursday.

In the semifinals, Manika will meet the winner of the match between Jeon Jihee of Korea and Mima Ito of Japan.

World no. 44 Manika, who is unseeded in the event, came up with a fantastic showing to beat the third seeded Xingtong. The final scoreline in the edge-of-the-seat thriller was 8-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-6, 9-11, 8-11, 11-9 in the Indian's favour with the Thai crowd extending its full-throated support.

The match went down to the wire because of the exemplary courage that Manika displayed when the Chinese paddler gained the upper hand after levelling the score at 3-3.

Shedding her cautious approach, Manika went for the kill in the decider and led 5-2, 8-3, 8-7 and 9-7 before the third seed managed to hold her serve to level 9-9. Nevertheless, Manika seized the moment to serve out her opponent, taking the last two crucial points to beat the third Chinese in her career.

Manika led the first game 7-4 before letting the Chinese claw her way back to take it. But she picked up momentum, mixing the up-and-down pace cleverly to confuse her opponent. It paid off as she led 3-1.

But the Chinese closed in on, taking the next two games when Manika attacked. But everything changed in the last game when the Indian got her rhythm back to nail it.

Earlier, G. Sathiyan, the top-ranked Indian in the world at No. 39, did everything right before going down 3-4 to the fifth-seed Japanese Yukiya Uda in the pre-quarterfinals.

Although the Japanese won 11-9, 11-8, 7-11, 9-11, 11-6, 10-12, 11-6, Sathiyan showed great character when down 0-2 to strike back against world No. 26.

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