In a thrilling table tennis game, in the Women’s Singles at the 2024 Paris Olympics Manika Batra came out victorious becoming the first Indian paddler to advance into the round of 16 at the Olympics.
Batra was up against the Prithika Pavade, paddler representing the host country France. Pavade is only 19 years old and ranks in the 19th position in world ranking. Batra-Pavade game started off as a tense showdown as both the competitors were fighting hard to win the game. Manika took the lead by winning 1st set but couldn’t exceed the points gap more than one point. As the home crowd cheered for Prithika the second set wasn’t any different but ultimately she ended up losing to Batra. From there it all went downhill for Prithika as Batra won 2 more sets and won the match in best of seven.
Batra did make some errors causing her to lose some match points in the last set but it didn’t benefit Prithika at all. Batra reaching in the round of 16 keeps India’s Olympic dream alive and thriving.