World TT: India women’s team out

CHENGDU: The India women’s team’s campaign at the World Table Tennis Championships ended after a 0-3 pre-quarterfinal loss to Chinese Taipei here on Wednesday. Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula and Diya Chitale lost their respective singles matches to concede the Round-of-16 tie. Manika, whose form has been patchy, was no match for World No.22 Chen Szu-Yu as the Indian succumbed to a 0-3 (7-11, 9-11, 3-11) defeat. With India trailing 0-1, Sreeja could not get past World No.35 Cheng I-Ching and went down 1-3 (8-11, 11-5, 6-11, 9-11). Diya fought hard and came close to giving India its first win of the tie, but the teenager lost to the experienced Liu Hsing-Yin 2-3 (6-11, 11-9, 11-9, 8-11, 7-11). Meanwhile, the India men’s team will take on China in the pre-quarterfinals on Thursday. India lost 0-3 to France in its final Group 2 tie on Tuesday, but progressed to the knockouts.