World Table Tennis C'ships: Three female Indian paddlers qualify

Madhurika Patkar, Archana Kamath and Sutirtha Mukherjee won their final group matches on Monday to qualify for the World Table Tennis individual Championships.

Madhurika Patkar beat Catherine Spicer of Trinadad and Tobago 11-3, 11-8, 11-3, 11-6 to qualify for the World Championships. (File Photo)

Indian women qualified for the singles main draw of the World Individual Table Tennis Championships, by virtue of topping their respective (three-member) groups of 60.

Madhurika Patkar, Archana Kamath and Sutirtha Mukherjee won their final group matches on Monday.
Archana fought back from losing the first two games to overcome Eva Odorova of Slovakia 4-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5,  11-6, 11-5 while Madhurika blanked Catherine Spicer of Trinadad and Tobago 11-3, 11-8, 11-3, 11-6.

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Sutirtha scripted a 14-12, 12-10, 11-8, 11-9 win over Rachel Moret of Switzerland. India's top-ranked paddler Manika Batra is the lone woman in the singles main draw, beginning Tuesday.

Manav Thakkar made it to the men's singles main draw with a hard-fought 11-5, 11-7, 8-11, 14-16, 11-8, 6-11, 11-5 win over Leonardo Mutti of Italy in the preliminary (knock-out) round.

On the other hand, A. Amalraj went down fighting to Tom Jarvis of England 11-7, 11-9, 9-11, 6-11, 11-9, 9-11,11-3.