Indian table tennis veteran Sharath Kamal made a shock exit from the Paris Olympics men's singles competition, but star woman paddler Manika Batra started her campaign with a 4-1 thrashing of her opponent in a Round of 64 match here on Sunday.
The 42-year-old Sharath, who is making his fifth Olympics appearance, lost 2-4 (12-10, 9-11, 6-11, 7-11, 11-8, 10-12) to Deni Kozul of Slovenia, who is ranked 86 places below the Indian, in a Round of 64 match that lasted 53 minutes.
The 29-year-old Manika, on the other hand, dominated Anna Hursey of Great Britain. Manika, seeded 18th in the tournament and ranked 28th in the world, won 11-8, 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5 over Hursey.
At the Tokyo Olympics too, Manika had made it to the Round of 32 in singles. Manika faces 12th seed Prithika Pavade of France in the round of 32 match on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, Sreeja Akula advanced too with a clinical 4-0 win over Sweden's Christina Kallberg. Sreeja, the first Indian paddler to win a WTT Contender singles title, registered an 11-4, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8 victory in 30 minutes over the Swede.
Shuttle success
Shuttler PV Sindhu, with two Olympic medals under her belt, made quick work of Fathimath Abdul Razzaq of the Maldives, winning 21-9, 21-6 in under half an hour in a women's singles match on Sunday.
In the men's singles, HS Prannoy started off his maiden Olympic badminton campaign in style with a 21-18, 21-12 win against lesser-ranked Fabian Roth of Germany.
