Paris Olympics: India's table tennis campaign end with women's quarterfinal loss

Paris:Indian women's table tennis team, consisting of Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath, lost 3-1 in the quarterfinal against Germany here on Wednesday.

With this loss, India's table tennis campaign at the Paris Olympics came to an end.

Sreeja Akula-Archana Kamath and Manika Batra lost the first two contests as the fifth-seeded German team took a 2-0 lead.

Kamath, however, bounced back in the third rubber to beat Shan Xiaona and pull the lead back to 2-1. But Annett Kaufmann, in the fourth, won her second match of the quarterfinal and sealed Germany’s spot in the semifinal.

The Indian trio, seeded 11th, stunned fourth-seeded Romania 3-2 in their Round of 16 tie on Monday to enter the quarterfinal.

Earlier, the Indian men’s table tennis team of Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar crashed out of the Paris Games after losing to the top-seeded Chinese team in the Round of 16 on Tuesday.

For the first time in history, India competed in the men’s and women’s team events at the Olympics.

In the individual events, Manika and Sreeja had a brave run as they entered the women's singles quarterfinals but their storming campaign ended in the last eight with their respective defeats.

Harmeet and Sharath, on the other hand, were eliminated in the first round of the men’s singles events.