Paris 2024 Olympics table tennis: Sharath Kamal ousted in opening round, Manika Batra advances

India’s Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula progressed to the second round of the women’s singles event at the Paris 2024 Olympics table tennis tournament on Sunday while veteran Sharath Kamal got knocked out in the men’s singles opener.

The 42-year-old Sharath Kamal, who was the co-flag-bearer for the Indian delegation at the Opening Ceremony, was stunned 4-2 (12-10, 9-11, 6-11, 7-11, 11-8, 10-12) by world No. 126 Deni Kozul of Slovenia in the first round.

Sharath Kamal, ranked 40th, is playing at his fifth Olympics. His next assignment will be the men’s team event at the ongoing Summer Games.

“Quite a disappointing outing for me,” said Sharath. “I had prepared quite hard for this Olympics… but today it didn’t work out. I just need to get back and see what went wrong.”

At Tokyo 2020, Sharath had exited in the third round of the men’s singles tournament.

Meanwhile, Manika, ranked 28th, won 4-1 (11-8, 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5) against world No. 103 Anna Hursey of Great Britain to march into the second round. Manika Batra had also reached the third round in women’s singles at Tokyo 2020.

“I'm really happy that I won my first match because I was really nervous before the match to be honest,” said Manika, who is competing at her third Olympics. “I just go match by match and point by point.”

Earlier, Sreeja Akula, 25th in women’s singles table tennis rankings, began the day with a 4-0 (11-4, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8) win over world No. 58 Christina Kallberg of Sweden in the round of 64.

It was a comfortable day at the office for Sreeja who got off to a fantastic start. She won eight points on the trot in the first game to outclass her opponent. The Indian table tennis player held her ground in the second game and then got back to her best in the final two games to complete a win inside 30 minutes on her Olympic debut.

The 25-year-old Sreeja will face world No. 52 Zeng Jian of Singapore in the round of 32. Meanwhile, two-time Olympian Manika will be up against world No. 18 Prithika Pavade of host nation France.

Playing in the last match of the day, Olympic debutant Harmeet Desai, ranked 86th, lost to world No. 5 Felix Lebrun of France 4-0 (11-8, 11-8, 11-6, 11-8). Desai had earlier beaten Zaid Abo Yaman of Jordan 4-0 (11-7, 11-9, 11-5, 11-5) in the preliminary round to qualify for the main draw.

Harmeet's exit ended India's men's singles campaign at the Paris 2024 Olympics table tennis tournament.