Manika Batra on Monday became the first Indian table tennis player to reach the round of 16 in the Olympic Games singles competition after a 4-0 thrashing of higher-ranked Prithika Pavade of France. (Medal Tally | Full Olympic Coverage)
The 29-year-old Manika, gold medallist at the 2018 Comm🉐onwealth Games, won 11-9 11-6 11-9 11-7 against her 19-year-opponent Pavade whose parents were originally from Puducherry🐟 before shifting to France in 2003.
In the Tokyo Olympics, Manika had become the first women's table tennis player from India to make it t💃o the round of 32 in singles. S💧he did one step better than that on Monday.
Achanta Sharath Kamal had also reached the round of 32 in men's singles in the To✅kyo Olympics. Manika is currently ranked 28th in the world, 10 places lower than Pavade.
