Sreeja Akula in action© AFP
Sreeja Akula rallied to enter the pre-quarterfinals after a hard-fought 4-2 win over Singapore’s Jian Zeng in a women’s singles round of 32 match as Indian table tennis continued to make history at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday. On her 26th birthday, Sreeja won the match 9-11 12-10 11-4 11-5 10-12 12-10 to join compatriot Manika Batra in the pre-quarterfinals, an unprecedented feat in the history of Indian table tennis. She lost the opening game but fought back strongly to emerge as the winner in the contest, which lasted 51 minutes.
Batra had made the pre-quarters on Monday.
Sreeja will take on China’s world number one Sun Yingsha in the pre-quarterfinals.
Having lost the first hame, Sreeja rode her luck to win the second and restore parity. She was a bit fortunate to take the second game as she made quite a number of errors and squandered a three-point lead to allow Zeng claw back into the game and take it to tie-breakers.
Emboldened by the comeback, a confident Seeja produced a dominant show to easily pocket the third game and place herself in a strong position to advance to the next round.
The Indian number one continued in the same vein in the fourth game and won it without much difficulty. The player from Singapore offered some resistance and bagged the fifth game.
But, Sreeja held her nerves to seal the deal in her favour in the sixth game.
Last month, Sreeja achieved a career-high world ranking of No. 24, displacing Batra as India’s top women’s singles player.
Sreeja, a two-time national champion, scripted history by winning the WTT Contender singles title in Lagos in June.
At the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, she won the gold medal in the mixed doubles event with Sharath Kamal.
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